Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 40.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 34,697 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of MarketAxess worth $13,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,184,298 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,423,499,000 after acquiring an additional 25,208 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 18.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,928,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,537,253,000 after acquiring an additional 608,107 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its position in MarketAxess by 96,420.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 2,205,496 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $576,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,203,211 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,071,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $577,691,000 after acquiring an additional 19,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in MarketAxess by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,868,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $635,737,000 after acquiring an additional 13,367 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $228.18 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $223.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $249.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.63, a PEG ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.91. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $200.01 and a fifty-two week high of $399.78.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $1.46 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46. The business had revenue of $172.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.32 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 21.86% and a net margin of 33.78%. The company’s revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.58 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 7th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 43.70%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $254.00 to $242.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $308.00 to $284.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 27th. StockNews.com raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $278.00 to $246.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $272.27.

MarketAxess Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates an electronic trading platform for institutional investor and broker-dealer companies worldwide. It offers the access to liquidity in the U.S. investment-grade bonds, U.S. high-yield bonds, and U.S. Treasuries, as well as municipal bonds, emerging market debts, Eurobonds, and other fixed-income securities.