Point72 DIFC Ltd Buys Shares of 3,912 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,002,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $1,966,000. Geneva Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 15,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,926,000 after acquiring an additional 3,121 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,265,000 after acquiring an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.5% during the second quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 164,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,913,000 after acquiring an additional 2,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in MarketAxess by 32.5% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 82,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,237,000 after purchasing an additional 20,334 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on MKTX. UBS Group boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Two research 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $243.96 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97. The company has a market capitalization of $9.20 billion, a PE ratio of 33.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.80 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $273.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $240.74.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.