MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Director William Frank Jr. Cruger Sells 6,164 Shares of Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Director William Frank Jr. Cruger sold 6,164 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total value of $1,005,964.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,185.60. This trade represents a 60.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.1%

NASDAQ MKTX traded down $0.09 on Friday, hitting $163.00. 892,280 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 740,768. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $145.00 and a 200 day moving average of $149.70. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $195.96. The company has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The company had revenue of $218.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.00 EPS. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 10,925.6% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,816,856 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $546,665,000 after acquiring an additional 4,773,168 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the second quarter worth approximately $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at $397,772,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 169.0% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $463,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,373,000 after purchasing an additional 932,687 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. UBS Group lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up from $150.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for institutional fixed-income markets. Through its technology, investors and dealers can trade corporate bonds, government securities, emerging-market debt and other credit products in an electronic environment designed to improve access, execution and transparency.

The company’s offerings include its Open Trading marketplace, which connects a broad network of institutional participants, as well as a range of trading protocols that support different liquidity and execution needs.