Blue Trust Inc. Decreases Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Blue Trust Inc. trimmed its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 22.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 183 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $142,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accent Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $25,000. Park Place Capital Corp acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth about $54,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its stake in MarketAxess by 555.6% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 160.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on MKTX. Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.00.

MarketAxess Stock Down 8.9 %

MKTX opened at $198.07 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $192.42 and a 52 week high of $296.68. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $228.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $247.31. The firm has a market cap of $7.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.84, a P/E/G ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.02.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current year.

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.