Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 3,461 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Prudential Financial Inc. cut its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 10.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,461 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $6,654,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% during the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 13,900.0% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.0 %

MKTX opened at $216.75 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $207.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $238.95. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The company has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) 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, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.40%. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.82%.

About MarketAxess

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.