Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $2.12 Million Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Retirement Systems of Alabama reduced its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,254 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 107 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $2,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in MarketAxess by 405.1% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter worth approximately $54,000. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total value of $2,676,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 in the last ninety days. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $264.60.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $230.15 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $266.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $242.69. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $297.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.19, a P/E/G ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 1.00.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

About MarketAxess

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.