Norris Perne & French LLP MI Lowers Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Norris Perne & French LLP MI lessened its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,124 shares during the quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI owned approximately 0.10% of MarketAxess worth $8,122,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 0.3% during the third 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 last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 1,469 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $376,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in MarketAxess by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $673,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of MKTX opened at $217.77 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $232.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $247.34. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $296.68. The stock has a market cap of $8.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 1.03.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MKTX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays reduced their target price on MarketAxess from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $261.30.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other MarketAxess 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 transaction of $72,171.00. Following 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. The trade was a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. Insiders own 2.66% 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.