California State Teachers Retirement System Has $4.82 Million Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• California State Teachers Retirement System reduced its MarketAxess stake by 2.8% to 42,443 shares, valued at approximately $4.82 million. Institutional investors collectively own 99.01% of the company.
• Analysts remain cautious: MarketAxess has an average “Hold” rating and a $156.10 average price target after several firms lowered their targets.
• MarketAxess exceeded quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $1.95 in EPS and $218.41 million in revenue, while paying a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share. The stock recently traded at $163.24.

California State Teachers Retirement System cut its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 42,443 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 1,245 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.12% of MarketAxess worth $4,816,856 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $453,941,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at about $397,772,000. Azora Capital LP purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $58,230,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $91,324,000. Finally, Davis Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at about $56,745,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. 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 report on Wednesday, July 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d+)" rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday, August 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective 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. Finally, William Blair lowered shares of MarketAxess from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $156.10.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.1%

MKTX traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $163.24. 538,420 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 740,690. 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 company has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.25, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $146.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $149.43.

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $658,185.60. The trade was a 60.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 6,464 shares of company stock valued at $1,050,069 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company's stock.

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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