Richard M. Mcvey Sells 20,000 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $261.65 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $272.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $235.53. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in MarketAxess by 4.0% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in MarketAxess by 16.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,063,000 after buying an additional 19,962 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 1.4% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,682 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,737,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in MarketAxess by 390.7% during the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 7,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,015,000 after buying an additional 6,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in MarketAxess by 421.1% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 53,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,681,000 after buying an additional 43,153 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on MKTX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

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.