Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Acquires New Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 4,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,099,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at approximately $614,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at $568,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,804 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $718,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 102.8% during the 3rd quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,096 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569 shares during the period. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,693,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $258.69 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $192.42 and a one year high of $297.97. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $273.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $239.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.75 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 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 firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 40.11%.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.