Point72 DIFC Ltd Purchases Shares of 3,912 MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,002,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. FMR LLC lifted its position in MarketAxess by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after buying an additional 291,134 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 10.3% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $366,580,000 after acquiring an additional 170,095 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 0.6% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $343,032,000 after purchasing an additional 8,042 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 53.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after purchasing an additional 285,665 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.2% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 443,714 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,978,000 after purchasing an additional 17,996 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at $150,438,302.43. This trade represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup raised their price target on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $243.96 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $192.42 and a 52-week high of $297.97. The stock has a market cap of $9.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.06, a P/E/G ratio of 11.80 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $273.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $240.74.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. Analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

About MarketAxess

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.