Covea Finance Increases Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Covea Finance boosted its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 149.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,200 shares during the quarter. Covea Finance’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $3,510,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its position in MarketAxess by 555.6% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 39.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $194,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 128.2% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 502 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $129,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 7,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,970,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 9,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,317,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $222.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $249.80.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX traded up $1.67 during trading on Friday, hitting $278.10. 313,457 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 413,146. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $192.42 and a 52-week 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 company has a fifty day moving average price of $250.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $223.30. The company has a market cap of $10.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.07, a P/E/G ratio of 7.24 and a beta of 1.08.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.04. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.71% and a return on equity of 20.43%. The business had revenue of $197.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 42.65%.

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

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, insider Christophe Pierre Danie Roupie sold 617 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.63, for a total transaction of $142,915.71. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,409 shares in the company, valued at $1,716,146.67. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate 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.