MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Newly Purchased by ProShare Advisors LLC

Key Points

• ProShare Advisors LLC purchased 89,772 MarketAxess shares in the third quarter, valued at approximately $14.7 million, giving it a 0.26% stake. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 99.01% of MKTX.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold”, with 12 Hold ratings and one Buy rating. The consensus price target is $159.44, while Barclays and Morgan Stanley recently raised their targets to $167.
• MarketAxess reported quarterly EPS of $1.86 and revenue of $210.41 million, both below analyst expectations. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share, equivalent to an annualized $3.12 dividend and a 1.9% yield.

ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 89,772 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $14,715,000. ProShare Advisors LLC owned about 0.26% of MarketAxess as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth about $56,000. Westpac Banking Corp bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 215.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 391 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 97.0% during the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 394 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter worth about $49,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the company's 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,033 shares of the company's stock, valued at $658,185.60. This represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 6,464 shares of company stock worth $1,055,022. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price target on MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Thursday. William Blair lowered shares of MarketAxess from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $129.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of MarketAxess from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $159.44.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $165.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.25, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50-day moving average of $163.85 and a 200-day moving average of $155.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.95 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $210.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.98 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.51% and a return on equity of 23.15%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.02 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, November 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 11th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 10th. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.19%.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities and related market data services. The company connects institutional investors, broker-dealers and other market participants, enabling them to trade corporate bonds, government bonds, emerging-market debt and other credit products through digital workflows.

Its offerings include electronic request-for-quote trading, all-to-all trading through its Open Trading marketplace, portfolio trading, and tools designed to support pricing, liquidity discovery and trade execution.

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