Creative Planning Increases Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Creative Planning increased its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,777 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 141 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $455,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $314,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,479,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 47.4% during the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 11,121 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,230,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $218.00 to $223.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $253.30.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5 %

MKTX stock opened at $274.87 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $297.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.91, a current ratio of 2.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a PE ratio of 39.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.04 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50 day moving average of $269.28 and a 200 day moving average of $232.51.

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

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 42.65%.

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.