Mather Group LLC. Trims Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Mather Group LLC. lessened its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 269 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 47 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $69,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,352 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 114,646 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,574,000 after purchasing an additional 26,090 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 14,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,264,000 after buying an additional 493 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. MA grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 14,534 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,256,000 after buying an additional 3,174 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,526,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,325,563,000 after buying an additional 34,197 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America lowered 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. Citigroup upped their target price 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $249.80.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were 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 owns 7,409 shares in the company, valued at $1,716,146.67. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $278.10 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $297.97. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $10.50 billion, a PE ratio of 40.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $250.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $223.40.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.63 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.74 dividend. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.65%.

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

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.