MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lowered its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX - Free Report) by 71.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,449 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 20,714 shares during the quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH's holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,828,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. FMR LLC grew its position in MarketAxess by 17.4% during the fourth 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 stake in 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 worth $519,533,000 after acquiring an additional 236,118 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth $46,079,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 25,960.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 183,465 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $39,693,000 after acquiring an additional 182,761 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 285.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 186,569 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $40,364,000 after acquiring an additional 138,191 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. William Blair assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a research report on Friday, April 4th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Piper Sandler reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $204.00 price objective (up previously from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on MarketAxess from $223.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $240.00 to $237.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on MarketAxess from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $240.67.

MarketAxess Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of MKTX traded up $2.25 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $207.75. 416,260 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 334,406. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The company's 50 day moving average is $217.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $214.44. The company has a market capitalization of $7.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.13, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 26.57%. MarketAxess's revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.92 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

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.