New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 6,915 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 8.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 75,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,915 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $17,174,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MKTX. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 179.5% in the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 109 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Park Place Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the fourth quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 230.4% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Stock Up 2.2 %

MarketAxess stock opened at $193.96 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $216.37 and its 200 day moving average is $244.80. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.84 and a 52-week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

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.