MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB Acquires 84 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 51.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $55,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at about $37,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 57.4% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at about $56,000. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter valued at about $65,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on MKTX shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $283.00 to $274.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $204.00 price target (up previously from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $186.59, for a total value of $298,544.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 43,208 shares in the company, valued at $8,062,180.72. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total transaction of $276,868.08. Following the transaction, the executive owned 67,681 shares in the company, valued at $12,542,642.92. The trade was a 2.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $178.32 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $194.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $209.93. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $177.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a PE ratio of 30.02, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.88.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.The business had revenue of $219.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.05 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.18%.

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.