HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 92 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 92 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $292,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $54,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 160.3% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $264.60.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.3 %

MarketAxess stock opened at $229.46 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $264.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $243.49. The firm has a market cap of $8.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.00. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week 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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million for 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents 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 the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.