Franklin Resources Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 274.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,753 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 22,538 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.08% of MarketAxess worth $6,951,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $309,472,000 after purchasing an additional 30,180 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 14.9% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 630,526 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $142,524,000 after purchasing an additional 15,713 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised MarketAxess from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Barclays upped their price target on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $252.11.

Remove Ads

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock opened at $203.19 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.84 and a 1 year high of $296.68. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $205.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $235.86. The firm has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.95, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its 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%. On average, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess's previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

MarketAxess Company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.