Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Purchases New Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 53,974 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,200,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in MarketAxess by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 440,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $99,669,000 after purchasing an additional 11,291 shares in the last quarter. South Dakota Investment Council lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $124,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 11,220 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,536,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 44.2% in the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 16,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,682,000 after acquiring an additional 4,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 10,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,406,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 2.5 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $191.81 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $214.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $244.00. The stock has a market cap of $7.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $254.78.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. The company offers trading technology that provides liquidity access in U.S. high-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, emerging market debt, eurobonds, municipal bonds, U.S.