Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Has $10.94 Million Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 65.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 48,378 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 19,062 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.13% of MarketAxess worth $10,935,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in 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 valued at $3,953,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in MarketAxess by 1.0% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in MarketAxess by 4.0% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 6.0% in the third quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 1,342 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock traded down $1.20 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $220.50. The company had a trading volume of 348,395 shares, compared to its average volume of 336,636. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $240.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.59. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $192.42 and a 1-year high of $296.68. The company has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.67 and a beta of 1.03.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. MarketAxess's revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MKTX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $261.30.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company's stock.

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.