Park Avenue Securities LLC Purchases New Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 1,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 613.7% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,588 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,531,000 after buying an additional 18,563 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 7,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,970,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,204,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.9% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 4.3% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 15,530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,114,000 after purchasing an additional 635 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.63, for a total value of $142,915.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,409 shares in the company, valued at $1,716,146.67. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $278.10 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97. The company has a market cap of $10.50 billion, a PE ratio of 40.07, a P/E/G ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $223.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.91, a quick ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $197.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $198.07 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $249.80.

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.