MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Chairman Sells $2,676,700.00 in Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This trade represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX opened at $261.65 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $272.48 and its 200-day moving average is $235.78. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45, a P/E/G ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after purchasing an additional 139,949 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 16.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,063,000 after buying an additional 19,962 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.4% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,682 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,737,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its position in MarketAxess by 390.7% during the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 7,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,015,000 after buying an additional 6,263 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.