American Century Companies Inc. Has $108.81 Million Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 119.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 487,197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 264,855 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 1.30% of MarketAxess worth $108,811,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.9% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 5,181 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,121,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,105,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,157 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, RMR Wealth Builders increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 2,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on MKTX. Wall Street Zen raised MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Piper Sandler set a $180.00 target price on MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Barclays upped their price target on MarketAxess from $186.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $205.91.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $163.88 on Wednesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.17 and a 52-week high of $266.21. The company has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $170.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.18.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $208.82 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.59 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.The business’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 51.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess 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 transaction of $298,544.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 43,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,062,180.72. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the executive owned 67,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,542,642.92. This represents a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess Company 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.