Azora Capital LP Sells 9,394 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Azora Capital LP trimmed its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 17.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,756 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 9,394 shares during the quarter. Azora Capital LP owned approximately 0.12% of MarketAxess worth $9,891,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,002,475,000 after acquiring an additional 90,805 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $520,013,000 after acquiring an additional 341,493 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $519,533,000 after purchasing an additional 236,118 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $452,246,000 after purchasing an additional 236,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $309,472,000 after purchasing an additional 30,180 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $0.86 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $228.03. 514,827 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 491,546. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $215.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $229.29. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The company has a market cap of $8.48 billion, a PE ratio of 31.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $208.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.92 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. William Blair initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded MarketAxess from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $252.11.

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.