Holocene Advisors LP Has $1.37 Million Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Holocene Advisors LP lessened its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 96.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,352 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 134,208 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,371,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MKTX. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,966,000. Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 15,325 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,926,000 after buying an additional 3,121 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares during the period. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Van Berkom & Associates Inc. now owns 164,132 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $32,913,000 after buying an additional 2,485 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in MarketAxess by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 82,894 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $21,237,000 after buying an additional 20,334 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on MKTX. Barclays raised their target price 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $267.50.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of MKTX traded down $4.03 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $239.93. The stock had a trading volume of 573,586 shares, compared to its average volume of 363,540. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $297.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $273.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $241.07. The firm has a market cap of $9.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.15 and a beta of 1.00.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect 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 was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.23%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at $160,883,880.75. This represents a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.