Bank of America Corp DE Makes New Investment in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Bank of America initiated a MarketAxess stake of 303,517 shares valued at approximately $34.4 million, representing about 0.86% ownership. Institutional investors collectively own 99.01% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment has weakened, with several firms cutting price targets and downgrading the stock. MarketAxess has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $156.10.
• MarketAxess exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, reporting $1.95 in EPS and $218.41 million in revenue, while revenue declined 0.5% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share, for a 1.9% yield.

Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 303,517 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $34,446,000. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 0.86% of MarketAxess as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at about $397,772,000. North Reef Capital Management LP grew its stake in MarketAxess by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,875,000 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $309,338,000 after acquiring an additional 265,670 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 581,484 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $95,933,000 after purchasing an additional 54,503 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $91,324,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. William Blair lowered shares of MarketAxess from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $195.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $156.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total value of $1,005,964.80. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,033 shares of the company's stock, valued at $658,185.60. This trade represents a 60.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 6,464 shares of company stock worth $1,050,069 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $163.43 on Wednesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The stock's 50-day moving average is $152.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $148.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The firm has a market cap of $5.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The company had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.00 EPS. The firm's revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.79%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for institutional fixed-income markets. Through its technology, investors and dealers can trade corporate bonds, government securities, emerging-market debt and other credit products in an electronic environment designed to improve access, execution and transparency.

The company's offerings include its Open Trading marketplace, which connects a broad network of institutional participants, as well as a range of trading protocols that support different liquidity and execution needs.

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