D.A. Davidson & CO. Purchases New Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

D.A. Davidson & CO. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 10,102 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,588,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings 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 valued at $3,953,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,479,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 4.9% in 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 buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. This represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $3.02 on Friday, hitting $258.69. The stock had a trading volume of 230,227 shares, compared to its average volume of 404,515. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $273.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $239.58. The stock has a market cap of $9.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 1.05.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. MarketAxess's revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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

MarketAxess Company Profile

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.