Credit Agricole S A Decreases Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Key Points

• Credit Agricole S A reduced its stake in MarketAxess Holdings by 33% during the first quarter, holding 9,405 shares valued at approximately $2.04 million.
• MarketAxess reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, exceeding estimates of $1.94, and experienced a 11% year-over-year revenue increase to $219.46 million.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.76 per share, reflecting a yield of 1.6%, with a payout ratio of 51.18%.

Credit Agricole S A reduced its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 33.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,405 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 4,641 shares during the quarter. Credit Agricole S A's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,035,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 49.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 57.4% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 222 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in MarketAxess during the first quarter worth $56,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in MarketAxess during the first quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 173.0% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and set a $204.00 price objective (up previously from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Argus upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $228.09.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MarketAxess stock traded down $0.37 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $189.78. 551,893 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 671,666. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $182.99 and a one year high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $207.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.18.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.62% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $219.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $218.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. MarketAxess's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.18%.

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.