MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Purchased by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 11.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 520 shares during the quarter. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the first quarter worth about $280,000. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 26.6% during the first quarter. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. now owns 60,492 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,087,000 after purchasing an additional 12,697 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 210.8% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,764,000 after purchasing an additional 11,801 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the first quarter worth about $543,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 16.4% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,334,000 after purchasing an additional 2,784 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on MKTX shares. Loop Capital set a $164.00 price objective on MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Saturday. Zacks Research cut MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Piper Sandler set a $180.00 price objective on MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $216.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total transaction of $276,868.08. Following the transaction, the executive owned 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,542,642.92. This trade represents a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.59, for a total transaction of $298,544.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 43,208 shares in the company, valued at $8,062,180.72. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $170.55 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $161.61 and a one year high of $296.68. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $179.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $203.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.71, a PEG ratio of 6.91 and a beta of 0.89.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.06. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.62% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $219.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $218.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS 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.