Bank of Montreal Can Acquires 2,219 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 61,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,219 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $12,290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 155.8% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2,428.6% during the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 405.1% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at about $68,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $238.60.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $254.84 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.91 and a quick ratio of 2.91. The company has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.42, a P/E/G ratio of 6.04 and a beta of 1.07. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $240.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $219.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $197.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $198.07 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.71% and a return on equity of 20.43%. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 43.47%.

MarketAxess declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.63, for a total value of $142,915.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,716,146.67. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.