MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV lowered its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 71.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,833 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $330,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,002,475,000 after acquiring an additional 90,805 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $520,013,000 after purchasing an additional 341,493 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in MarketAxess by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,298,409 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $519,533,000 after purchasing an additional 236,118 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in MarketAxess by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,472,000 after purchasing an additional 30,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,113,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $251,106,000 after purchasing an additional 36,431 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $221.68 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $221.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $216.01. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $186.84 and a 1 year high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.55, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 26.57%. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.92 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $263.00 to $283.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $305.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $189.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on MarketAxess from $232.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $241.78.

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.