abrdn plc Grows Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

abrdn plc lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 111.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,464 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,407 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% in the third 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 boosted its position in MarketAxess by 0.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $343,032,000 after purchasing an additional 8,042 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 14.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $275,122,000 after purchasing an additional 139,949 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 42.1% during the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 393,877 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $100,911,000 after purchasing an additional 116,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in MarketAxess by 8.9% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 220,146 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $56,401,000 after purchasing an additional 17,945 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX traded up $2.07 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $193.49. The stock had a trading volume of 642,676 shares, compared to its average volume of 542,259. The company has a market capitalization of $7.29 billion, a PE ratio of 26.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $220.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.87. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $188.88 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a boost from MarketAxess's previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.72%.

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.