Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Acquires 17,013 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 16.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 118,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,013 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. owned about 0.32% of MarketAxess worth $26,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 200.0% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 992.9% during the second quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at $37,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 51.2% in the second quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 173.0% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 333 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on MKTX. Barclays cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $200.00 to $186.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped 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. Loop Capital set a $164.00 price target on MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $216.58.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $167.27 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.16, a PEG ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $174.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $198.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.17 and a fifty-two week high of $277.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.15. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.62% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The company had revenue of $208.82 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.59 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 51.70%.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the director owned 43,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,062,180.72. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total value of $276,868.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive owned 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,542,642.92. The trade was a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.