Allianz SE Makes New Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Allianz SE acquired a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,002,475,000 after purchasing an additional 90,805 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,472,000 after acquiring an additional 30,180 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after acquiring an additional 139,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 630,526 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $142,524,000 after purchasing an additional 15,713 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $216.35 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.15 billion, a PE ratio of 29.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $186.84 and a fifty-two week high of $296.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $207.49 and a 200-day moving average of $238.66.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.82%.

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.