MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Victory Capital Management Inc.

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 5.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,725 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 331 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,467,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in MarketAxess by 207.3% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 14,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,100,000 after purchasing an additional 9,539 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 46.2% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,735,000 after acquiring an additional 2,513 shares in the last quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. increased its position in MarketAxess by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 164,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,913,000 after purchasing an additional 2,485 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 22.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 82,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,237,000 after purchasing an additional 20,334 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.50.

MarketAxess Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $263.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.75, a P/E/G ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $273.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $238.10. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $192.42 and a 1-year high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.