Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 358,071 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 19,926 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.95% of MarketAxess worth $91,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.9% during 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 during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in 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 grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 0.7% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,479,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 1.0% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in 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 valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX traded up $0.69 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $261.71. The company's stock had a trading volume of 217,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 405,273. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $297.97. The company has a market cap of $9.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.37, a P/E/G ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 1.05. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $273.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $238.90.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. Analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was 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 $150,438,302.43. This trade represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $267.50.

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.