Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Has $2.78 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lowered its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 6.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 847 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MKTX. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 49.1% during the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter worth about $37,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 57.4% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the first quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $295.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Argus upgraded MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $212.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, August 25th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $204.00 price target (up from $202.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays decreased 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 assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $226.18.

MarketAxess Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $170.84 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.59 and a 12 month high of $296.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $188.51 and a 200-day moving average of $208.13. The company has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.89.

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.18%.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.59, for a total transaction of $298,544.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 43,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,062,180.72. This trade represents a 3.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total value of $276,868.08. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,542,642.92. The trade was a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

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.