MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) General Counsel Sells $14,699.00 in Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.99, for a total value of $14,699.00. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,747,123.14. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Scott Pintoff also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, April 10th, Scott Pintoff sold 100 shares of MarketAxess stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.96, for a total value of $17,196.00.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of MKTX opened at $139.28 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.27 and a 52 week high of $228.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.46, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $168.60 and a 200-day moving average of $171.13.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The company had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.87 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.88%.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 113.1% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 30,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,987,000 after purchasing an additional 16,047 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 16.1% during the 1st quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 3,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $586,000 after acquiring an additional 493 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 1st quarter worth about $56,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 16.9% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 307 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 581,484 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $95,933,000 after acquiring an additional 54,503 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MKTX shares. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Weiss Ratings cut MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Argus downgraded MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $189.00 to $170.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $190.88.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.