Envestnet Asset Management Inc. Sells 145,814 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 71.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 58,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 145,814 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned 0.15% of MarketAxess worth $12,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth about $119,095,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,300,536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $520,013,000 after purchasing an additional 341,493 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 11.4% during the fourth 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. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,079,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 25,960.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 183,465 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,693,000 after purchasing an additional 182,761 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday. William Blair assumed coverage on MarketAxess in a report on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $204.00 price target (up previously from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $295.00 price target on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $240.67.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.8%

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $208.84 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $219.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $215.15. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $7.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.85.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $208.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.81 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 19.93% and a net margin of 26.57%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.92 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.