MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Stake Lifted by Nordea Investment Management AB

Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 461.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 57,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,568 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $13,041,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 40.2% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 22.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after acquiring an additional 10,361 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in MarketAxess by 242.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,337,000 after acquiring an additional 5,818 shares in the last quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after acquiring an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at about $836,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at $160,883,880.75. This represents a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 in the last three months. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of MKTX opened at $219.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $296.68. The company’s fifty day moving average is $251.02 and its 200-day moving average is $245.69.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.11%.

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.