Cumberland Partners Ltd Buys Shares of 2,000 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Cumberland Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,000 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $512,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,539,440 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $995,272,000 after purchasing an additional 13,018 shares during the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 2,425,897 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $531,878,000 after purchasing an additional 564,820 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $366,580,000 after purchasing an additional 170,095 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,330,880 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $266,881,000 after purchasing an additional 204,960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 53.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $164,447,000 after acquiring an additional 285,665 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Monday. Two investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of MKTX traded down $4.50 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $267.13. 266,250 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 407,412. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $272.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $234.92. The firm has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.27 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The business 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%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.11%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is 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.