Azora Capital LP Buys 12,935 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Azora Capital LP boosted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 32.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,150 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 12,935 shares during the period. Azora Capital LP owned approximately 0.14% of MarketAxess worth $13,617,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 2.9% in the second quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $314,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% during the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,953,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,479,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.9% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup boosted their target price 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Two investment 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $267.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

MarketAxess Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of MKTX stock traded up $4.78 during trading on Monday, reaching $263.47. 404,195 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 404,515. The company has a market capitalization of $9.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a PEG 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 Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. MarketAxess's revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors 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.