Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases New Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 11,497 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,603,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Prudential PLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 219.4% during the 4th quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 7,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,710,000 after acquiring an additional 5,198 shares during the last quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth approximately $481,000. Cinctive Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,204,000. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $434,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its position in MarketAxess by 185.7% in the 4th 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. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. William Blair initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.11.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $203.19 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s fifty day moving average is $205.06 and its 200-day moving average is $235.86.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. On average, research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.