Commerce Bank Acquires 97 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Commerce Bank grew its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,626 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $673,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in MarketAxess by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $366,580,000 after purchasing an additional 170,095 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 18.2% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,330,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $266,881,000 after buying an additional 204,960 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 53.5% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after buying an additional 285,665 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in MarketAxess by 4.2% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 443,714 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,978,000 after buying an additional 17,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 42.1% during the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 393,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,911,000 after acquiring an additional 116,607 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $263.80 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.75, a PEG ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $192.42 and a one year high of $297.97. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $273.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $238.10.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan 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 purchase up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.