Primecap Management Co. CA Grows Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,042 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA owned 3.55% of MarketAxess worth $343,032,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Commerce Bank increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 2,626 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $673,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $1,966,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 901.5% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 16,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,103,000 after acquiring an additional 14,415 shares in the last quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 7.7% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were 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 directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on MKTX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Two equities research 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, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $265.44 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.97, a P/E/G ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $192.42 and a 52-week high of $297.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $273.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.04.

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

MarketAxess declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program 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 purchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors 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 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

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.