Citigroup Inc. Sells 8,278 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Citigroup Inc. lessened its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 50,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,278 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $13,043,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $314,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,953,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in MarketAxess by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,479,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in MarketAxess by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.9% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $261.71 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $192.42 and a twelve month high of $297.97. The stock has a market cap of $9.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $273.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $239.06.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. MarketAxess’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 6th that permits the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess Profile

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.