Scott Pintoff Sells 300 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $240.07 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $9.05 billion, a PE ratio of 32.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.78 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $272.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $241.57. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on 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 lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $266.70.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after buying an additional 291,134 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $366,580,000 after buying an additional 170,095 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,032,000 after buying an additional 8,042 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $275,122,000 after buying an additional 139,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 53.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $164,447,000 after buying an additional 285,665 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.