SG Americas Securities LLC Sells 5,400 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

SG Americas Securities LLC trimmed its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 47.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,400 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position in MarketAxess by 42.4% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $575,546,000 after acquiring an additional 944,830 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 169.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $463,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 6.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,948,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $339,549,000 after purchasing an additional 119,036 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 76.6% during the fourth quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,609,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $291,691,000 after purchasing an additional 697,972 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 4.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,532,696 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $342,312,000 after purchasing an additional 67,290 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price target on the stock. Argus downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price target (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $178.27.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock opened at $116.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 2.17. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $131.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $160.05. The company has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.77, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.88. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $108.75 and a 1-year high of $222.40.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $233.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.87 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.88%.

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.