MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lowered its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 62.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,761 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 32,217 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $5,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commerce Bank raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.8% during the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 2,626 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $673,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth $1,966,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 901.5% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 16,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,103,000 after buying an additional 14,415 shares during the period. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its position in MarketAxess by 7.7% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of MarketAxess in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.50.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $260.35 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $273.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $238.10. The company has a market cap of $9.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.28, a P/E/G ratio of 11.69 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to buyback $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is 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.