Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Buys New Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,099,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in MarketAxess by 2,889.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 339,261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,032,000 after buying an additional 327,913 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 53.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after acquiring an additional 285,665 shares in the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 120.6% during the 2nd quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 393,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $78,823,000 after purchasing an additional 214,928 shares during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,330,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $266,881,000 after purchasing an additional 204,960 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. The trade was a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $258.69 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $297.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $239.99.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess declared that its board 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 reacquire up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

MarketAxess Company 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.