MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Balentine LLC

Balentine LLC trimmed its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 16.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 166 shares during the period. Balentine LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $249,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 51,460 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,994,000 after buying an additional 597 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 9.5% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 998 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 10.4% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 54,621 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,669,000 after buying an additional 5,155 shares during the last quarter. Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter worth $513,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 7.2% in the third quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 7,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,653,000 after buying an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $250.00 to $237.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $236.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $199.00 target price for the company. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $249.73.

MarketAxess Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $214.49 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $234.11. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $198.01 and a 52-week high of $297.97. The firm has a market cap of $8.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.50 and a beta of 0.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.07. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.83% and a return on equity of 20.82%. The business had revenue of $210.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.99 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 43.47%.

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.