State of Alaska Department of Revenue Boosts Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 295 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,128,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,539,440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $995,272,000 after purchasing an additional 13,018 shares in the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd increased its stake in MarketAxess by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 2,425,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $531,878,000 after buying an additional 564,820 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 10.3% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $366,580,000 after acquiring an additional 170,095 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 18.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 204,960 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted 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 worth $164,447,000 after acquiring an additional 285,665 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $253.30.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $287.60 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.41, a PEG ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $192.42 and a 1-year high of $297.97. The business’s 50 day moving average is $266.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $231.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 2.91 and a quick ratio of 2.91.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $197.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.07 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.43% and a net margin of 33.71%. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.26 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan 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 buy up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 7,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,716,146.67. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.