MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX Shares Sold by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC trimmed its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 167,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,900 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $27,568,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,175,425 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $575,546,000 after purchasing an additional 944,830 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 169.0% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,558,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $463,655,000 after buying an additional 1,607,009 shares during the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 697,972 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 valued at $342,312,000 after acquiring an additional 67,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 5,086.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 951,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,373,000 after purchasing an additional 932,687 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on MarketAxess from $170.00 to $132.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price objective for the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Bank of America upgraded MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Three equities 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.18.

MarketAxess Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of MKTX stock opened at $125.73 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $108.75 and a twelve month high of $210.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $119.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $151.77. The stock has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.86, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.88.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. MarketAxess had a net margin of 35.53% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.91 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.87 earnings per share. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

About MarketAxess

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.