Kentucky Retirement Systems Trims Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Kentucky Retirement Systems trimmed its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 226 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in MarketAxess were worth $674,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,539,440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $995,272,000 after purchasing an additional 13,018 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 730.1% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 4,599 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 4,045 shares during the last quarter. Natixis purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter worth about $842,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter worth about $162,000. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 7.0% in the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 27,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,812 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $267.81 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $272.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $236.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a PE ratio of 36.29, a P/E/G ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The business’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its board has authorized 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate 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.