Retirement Systems of Alabama Lowers Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Retirement Systems of Alabama decreased its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,163 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 91 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWM LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $194,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $202,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth about $54,000. Finally, Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,777 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after purchasing an additional 141 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 analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut 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 note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $195.27 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $223.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $191.91 and a 1-year high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $7.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.86, a PEG ratio of 4.08 and a beta of 1.02.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.72%.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.