Wellington Management Group LLP Takes $6.54 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 25,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,535,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in MarketAxess by 0.4% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 202,201 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,547,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,479,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,540,000. Finally, Access Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 32.3% during the 2nd quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $754,000 after buying an additional 917 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX stock opened at $232.92 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $269.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $242.39. The stock has a market cap of $8.78 billion, a PE ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 1.00. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $192.42 and a one year high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.11%.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped 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, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $266.70.

MarketAxess Company 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.