D.A. Davidson & CO. Increases Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 65.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 16,727 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,625 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.'s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $3,781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in MarketAxess by 13.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position 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 valued at $501,907,000 after purchasing an additional 291,134 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $343,032,000 after purchasing an additional 8,042 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 139,949 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 42.1% in the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 393,877 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $100,911,000 after acquiring an additional 116,607 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company's stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock traded up $4.15 on Friday, reaching $193.96. The stock had a trading volume of 799,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 551,009. The business's 50 day moving average is $216.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $244.73. The company has a market cap of $7.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.84 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a boost from MarketAxess's previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target 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.