MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) Director William Frank Jr. Cruger Sells 6,164 Shares

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Director William Frank Jr. Cruger sold 6,164 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total transaction of $1,005,964.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $658,185.60. This trade represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.1%

MKTX opened at $163.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $195.96. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $145.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $149.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.22, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.83.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.22% and a return on equity of 22.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.00 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on MKTX. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on MarketAxess from $175.00 to $128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Barclays raised their price objective on MarketAxess from $132.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered MarketAxess from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 target price (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.10.

Institutional Trading of MarketAxess

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 34.9% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 19,749 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,241,000 after acquiring an additional 5,107 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 104.7% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 32,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,684,000 after purchasing an additional 16,604 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at about $199,000. Corient Private Wealth LP grew its stake in MarketAxess by 102.1% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 4,834 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,442 shares during the period. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the second quarter worth approximately $272,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for institutional fixed-income markets. Through its technology, investors and dealers can trade corporate bonds, government securities, emerging-market debt and other credit products in an electronic environment designed to improve access, execution and transparency.

The company’s offerings include its Open Trading marketplace, which connects a broad network of institutional participants, as well as a range of trading protocols that support different liquidity and execution needs.