Equitable Trust Co. Has $384,000 Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Equitable Trust Co. lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 28.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,497 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $384,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in MarketAxess by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,539,440 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $995,272,000 after purchasing an additional 13,018 shares during the period. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd raised its position in MarketAxess by 30.3% during the first quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 2,425,897 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $531,878,000 after buying an additional 564,820 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $366,580,000 after acquiring an additional 170,095 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in MarketAxess by 18.2% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,330,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $266,881,000 after acquiring an additional 204,960 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in MarketAxess by 53.5% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after acquiring an additional 285,665 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $237.00 to $268.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $263.40.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $274.68 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $270.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $233.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.22, a PEG ratio of 8.55 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during 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%. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.33 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 6th that allows the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.