Geode Capital Management LLC Increases Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 14.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 139,949 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $275,122,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 16.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,063,000 after acquiring an additional 19,962 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 390.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 6,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 421.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 53,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,681,000 after purchasing an additional 43,153 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871 over the last quarter. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $266.70.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX opened at $233.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.81 billion, a PE ratio of 31.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 1.00. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $270.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $241.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.