New York Life Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

New York Life Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 9,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 154 shares during the quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,048,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the fourth quarter worth about $12,200,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 440,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,669,000 after purchasing an additional 11,291 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council increased its position in MarketAxess by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $124,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in MarketAxess by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 11,220 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,536,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE lifted its stake in MarketAxess by 44.2% in the fourth quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 16,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,682,000 after buying an additional 4,990 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MKTX. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $192.79 on Monday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $186.84 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The company has a market cap of $7.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $212.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $243.36.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. On average, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Company 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.