Bank of Nova Scotia Buys 91,419 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 535.8% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 108,481 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 91,419 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $24,228,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter worth $114,593,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 329.4% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 618,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,904,000 after purchasing an additional 474,776 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in MarketAxess by 119.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 487,197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $108,811,000 after purchasing an additional 264,855 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in MarketAxess by 181.2% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 250,037 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $55,843,000 after buying an additional 161,115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 64.8% during the 1st 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. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Kevin M. Mcpherson sold 1,494 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.32, for a total transaction of $276,868.08. Following the completion of the sale, the executive owned 67,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,542,642.92. This trade represents a 2.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their target price on MarketAxess from $186.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research upgraded MarketAxess from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Piper Sandler set a $180.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded MarketAxess from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $247.00 to $209.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $205.91.

MarketAxess Stock Up 4.9%

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $173.16 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.45, a P/E/G ratio of 7.52 and a beta of 1.00. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.17 and a 52 week high of $244.05. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $167.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $190.51.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $208.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.59 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 20.20%. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.90 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th were issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.70%.

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.