California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 1,435 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 68,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,435 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $20,190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in MarketAxess by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 33,288 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in MarketAxess by 146.4% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,265,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $270,422,000 after purchasing an additional 752,111 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in MarketAxess by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,118,220 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $238,897,000 after purchasing an additional 10,450 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in MarketAxess by 385.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 545,563 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $116,554,000 after purchasing an additional 433,217 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its position in MarketAxess by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 540,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $115,564,000 after purchasing an additional 23,070 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $263.00 to $225.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $239.00 to $236.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 8th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $229.00 to $210.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $278.00 to $279.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.80.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In other news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were 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 directly owns 70,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,508,555.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $201.79 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $214.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $236.64. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $199.34 and a 52-week high of $322.25. The stock has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.46, a PEG ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.98.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $197.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.70 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 21.76% and a net margin of 34.29%. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.58 EPS. On average, analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

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.