Fifth Third Bancorp Increases Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MKTX. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth about $54,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 160.3% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of MKTX opened at $218.99 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $233.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $247.55. The firm has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a PE ratio of 29.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.58 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.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued 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. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group raised their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $261.30.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

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