Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,770 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,434,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth $1,088,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in MarketAxess by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 363,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,103,000 after purchasing an additional 5,153 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH increased its stake in MarketAxess by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 8,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth about $539,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,079,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of 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, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $255.44.

MarketAxess Trading Down 2.4 %

MKTX opened at $210.83 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $207.07 and its 200 day moving average is $238.18. The company has a market cap of $7.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. As a group, analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.44%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.