MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Purchased by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 15.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 702 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,212,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $501,907,000 after buying an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $343,032,000 after buying an additional 8,042 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $275,122,000 after buying an additional 139,949 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 42.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 393,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,911,000 after buying an additional 116,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 220,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $56,401,000 after buying an additional 17,945 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $160,883,880.75. The trade was a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $220.63 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.03. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $192.42 and a one year high of $296.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $232.03 and its 200-day moving average is $247.53.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The company 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.