MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Purchased by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 22.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,361 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.15% of MarketAxess worth $14,265,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 405.1% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth $54,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 47.4% in the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on MKTX. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $261.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50 day moving average is $272.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $235.78. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $160,883,880.75. This represents a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.