Insider Selling: MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) General Counsel Sells $11,512.00 in Stock

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 100 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.12, for a total transaction of $11,512.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,345,292.32. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

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

• On Wednesday, June 10th, Scott Pintoff sold 100 shares of MarketAxess stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.03, for a total value of $11,603.00.
• On Monday, May 11th, Scott Pintoff sold 100 shares of MarketAxess stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.99, for a total value of $14,699.00.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $113.86 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $108.75 and a 12 month high of $219.18. The company has a quick ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $4.05 billion, a PE ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $126.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $157.64.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The firm had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 36.88%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On MarketAxess

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $463,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,875,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,338,000 after purchasing an additional 265,670 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $342,312,000 after purchasing an additional 67,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,373,000 after purchasing an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $170.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods initiated coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $167.45.

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.