Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Buys New Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,291 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,099,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at $614,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at $568,000. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,804 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $718,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 102.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,096 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $793,000 after buying an additional 1,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,607 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,693,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 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 report on Thursday, October 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX traded down $3.02 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $258.69. The company had a trading volume of 230,227 shares, compared to its average volume of 404,515. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $297.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $273.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $239.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million during 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

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

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.