Hudson Bay Capital Management LP Purchases Shares of 13,973 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Hudson Bay Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 13,973 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,435,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Stance Capital LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at about $43,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Argus downgraded MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $182.00 to $178.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $200.40.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $174.01 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.80, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $176.49 and its 200-day moving average is $174.58. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.17 and a 1 year high of $232.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.13, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.93.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $214.06 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.88% and a net margin of 29.14%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.73 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were issued a $0.78 dividend. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.85%.

MarketAxess Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.