MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Bought by Park Avenue Securities LLC

Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 7.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,609 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 106 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $348,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allianz SE purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 495.2% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 13,900.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 185.7% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 49.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup raised their target price on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America raised their target price on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. 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, April 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $225.25 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $219.79 and a 200-day moving average of $218.06. The company has a market capitalization of $8.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.98, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.84. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.92 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.87%.

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.