Savant Capital LLC Sells 125,561 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Savant Capital LLC trimmed its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 96.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 125,561 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $720,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $287,000. AGF Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 17.6% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 16,838 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,934,000 after acquiring an additional 2,524 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in MarketAxess by 4.2% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $302,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in MarketAxess by 258.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 184,857 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,211,000 after purchasing an additional 133,260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in MarketAxess by 110.8% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 31,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,568,000 after purchasing an additional 16,796 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $178.77 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $174.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.57. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.17 and a twelve month high of $232.84. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 3.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $6.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.84, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.04). MarketAxess had a net margin of 29.14% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The business had revenue of $209.41 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $214.06 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.73 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 18th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is 46.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MKTX shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $195.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Argus decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $212.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $194.00 to $198.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $200.40.

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.