IFP Advisors Inc Boosts Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 31.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 587 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 141 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $131,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MKTX. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 329.4% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 618,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,904,000 after buying an additional 474,776 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 999.6% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 222,342 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,104,000 after buying an additional 202,121 shares in the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 64.8% in the first quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 402,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,083,000 after buying an additional 158,240 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the first quarter worth about $26,786,000. Finally, NFJ Investment Group LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 89.0% in the first quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC now owns 229,763 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,709,000 after buying an additional 108,219 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $171.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.83, a PEG ratio of 6.91 and a beta of 0.89. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $161.61 and a 1 year high of $296.68. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $204.37.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $219.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 43,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,062,180.72. The trade was a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $12,542,642.92. This represents a 2.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on MKTX. Argus upgraded MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $212.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $274.00 to $253.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $217.00 to $208.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 11th. UBS Group dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $180.00 price target on MarketAxess in a research report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $216.58.

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.