Verition Fund Management LLC Sells 33,105 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Verition Fund Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 44.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,863 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 33,105 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC owned approximately 0.11% of MarketAxess worth $10,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,479,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake 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 valued at $1,287,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of 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 worth $324,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on MKTX. Barclays increased 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. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $3.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $258.69. 230,227 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 371,931. 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 Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $297.97. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $273.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $239.83.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company 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%. MarketAxess's revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at MarketAxess

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 592,029 shares of the company's stock, valued at $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.66% of the company's stock.

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.