Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Purchases New Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $543,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.1% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,323,015 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $502,585,000 after purchasing an additional 24,606 shares during the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.4% during the first quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP now owns 680,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $147,118,000 after purchasing an additional 9,100 shares during the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 64.8% during the first quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 402,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,083,000 after purchasing an additional 158,240 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 2.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 372,468 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,583,000 after purchasing an additional 9,244 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 8.6% during the first quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 341,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,935,000 after purchasing an additional 27,177 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.9%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $184.85 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12, a PEG ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.88. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $178.20 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $197.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $210.26.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $219.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.05 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.18%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.59, for a total transaction of $298,544.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 43,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,062,180.72. This trade represents a 3.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. UBS Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $228.09.

MarketAxess 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.