Allianz SE Buys Shares of 119 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Allianz SE purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Allstate Corp bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $244,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 3,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $772,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 24,013 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,428,000 after buying an additional 3,271 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in MarketAxess by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,770 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,434,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at about $119,095,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $216.35 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.15 billion, a PE ratio of 29.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $186.84 and a 12 month high of $296.68. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $207.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $238.66.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 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%. On average, research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 41.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Profile

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.