Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Sells 33,636 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 32.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 70,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 33,636 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $20,755,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in MarketAxess by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,705,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $364,462,000 after acquiring an additional 33,288 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,367,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $400,506,000 after purchasing an additional 101,829 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 0.9% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,118,220 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $238,897,000 after buying an additional 10,450 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 385.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 545,563 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $116,554,000 after buying an additional 433,217 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 540,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $115,564,000 after buying an additional 23,070 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.26, for a total transaction of $442,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 70,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,508,555.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $250.00 to $237.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 12th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $199.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.80.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX traded down $5.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $203.82. The stock had a trading volume of 505,834 shares, compared to its average volume of 367,799. The firm has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.98. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $199.33 and a 52 week high of $303.85. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $213.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $235.45.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $197.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.29% and a return on equity of 21.76%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.58 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.