MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Stock Position Trimmed by Westwood Holdings Group Inc.

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. decreased its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,139 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned approximately 0.22% of MarketAxess worth $18,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 10.0% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,589 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in MarketAxess by 373.9% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 33,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,491,000 after acquiring an additional 26,465 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its stake in MarketAxess by 43.9% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,433 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $767,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in MarketAxess by 287.2% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 31,787 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,099,000 after acquiring an additional 23,577 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its position in MarketAxess by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 9,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,054,000 after acquiring an additional 576 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MKTX. Zacks Research lowered MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $274.00 to $253.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Barclays upped their target price on MarketAxess from $186.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $164.00 price target on MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $209.91.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $174.97 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.17 and a 12 month high of $268.12. The company has a market cap of $6.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.46, a P/E/G ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $197.37.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.15. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.41% and a net margin of 26.62%.The firm had revenue of $208.82 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.59 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 51.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, Director Stephen P. Casper sold 1,600 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were 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 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total transaction of $276,868.08. Following the sale, the executive directly owned 67,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,542,642.92. This trade represents a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.65% 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.