Insider Selling: MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) General Counsel Sells 300 Shares of Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $240.07 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $272.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $241.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.78 and a beta of 1.00. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 242.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,337,000 after buying an additional 5,818 shares in the last quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after buying an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $836,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 24,737 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,338,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,645 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,471,000 after buying an additional 437 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $266.70.

About MarketAxess

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.