Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Acquires Shares of 5,868 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 5,868 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,503,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 405.1% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 47.4% during the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on MKTX. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Bank of America reduced 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.50.

Insider Activity

In related 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares in the company, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $258.69 on Monday. 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 $9.75 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $273.49 and its 200-day moving average is $239.99.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.11%.

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

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.