MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Chairman Sells $5,435,000.00 in Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock opened at $261.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.06 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $272.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $235.78.

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

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.13%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,953,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,479,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,287,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MKTX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. 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. Citigroup lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.50.

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.