MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Axa S.A.

AXA S.A. trimmed its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 23.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,514 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 4,354 shares during the period. AXA S.A.'s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $3,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 16.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 140,760 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $36,063,000 after buying an additional 19,962 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in MarketAxess by 242.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,337,000 after purchasing an additional 5,818 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 22.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 10,361 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 40.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 704 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $159,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 461.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 57,876 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $13,041,000 after purchasing an additional 47,568 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. William Blair assumed coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. Barclays lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $241.78.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock traded down $3.54 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $214.55. The company had a trading volume of 162,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 492,428. The company has a market cap of $7.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $217.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $227.13.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. The business had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $211.81 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.92 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. MarketAxess's payout ratio is presently 52.87%.

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.