Bank of Montreal Can Has $10.85 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Bank of Montreal Can cut its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 19.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 48,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 11,628 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $10,854,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 179.5% in the 4th 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 during the period. Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 495.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in MarketAxess by 13,900.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Up 5.5 %

MKTX opened at $221.81 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $8.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.51, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s 50 day moving average is $204.99 and its 200-day moving average is $235.15. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $186.84 and a 1-year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.82%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on MKTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. William Blair assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.11.

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.