Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC Sells 6,447 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 38.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,372 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 6,447 shares during the quarter. Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Norges Bank bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter worth $119,095,000. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $71,103,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at $46,079,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on MKTX shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of MarketAxess from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $220.00 to $213.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price 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. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $252.11.

Remove Ads

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock traded up $1.56 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $223.98. The company had a trading volume of 496,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 486,400. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $205.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $234.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $186.84 and a 12 month high of $296.68. The company has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. This is a boost from MarketAxess's previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess's payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

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.