Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Buys 152 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 11.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $338,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after buying an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,032,000 after buying an additional 8,042 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in MarketAxess by 14.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $275,122,000 after buying an additional 139,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 11,291 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $217.33 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $241.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 41.82%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target 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. UBS Group dropped their price objective 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. Barclays reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.78.

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.