MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Sold by Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. reduced its holdings in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 60,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 15,000 shares during the quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $10,455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 393.0% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 98,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,948,000 after purchasing an additional 78,336 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 16.4% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,334,000 after buying an additional 2,784 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 190.6% during the second quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 3,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $682,000 after buying an additional 2,036 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 1st quarter valued at $543,000. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in MarketAxess during the 1st quarter worth about $635,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX opened at $168.77 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $172.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 5.74 and a beta of 0.97. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.17 and a fifty-two week high of $232.84.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.15. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.20% and a net margin of 26.16%.The firm had revenue of $208.82 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.59 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.90 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th were given a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MKTX. Argus reduced their price objective on MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $188.00 to $182.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $209.00 to $204.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $202.91.

MarketAxess Profile

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.