Principal Financial Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 22.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 55,679 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 10,361 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.15% of MarketAxess worth $14,265,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MKTX. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 48.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 11,615 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,547,000 after acquiring an additional 3,787 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 9.6% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 41,191 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $9,031,000 after acquiring an additional 3,603 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the first quarter worth approximately $7,926,000. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in MarketAxess in the 1st quarter valued at $914,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 0.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MKTX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $267.50.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

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 directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ MKTX traded down $3.33 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $261.65. 378,497 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 356,597. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $272.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $235.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45, a P/E/G ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The business had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

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 issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.11%.

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

MarketAxess 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.