167,710 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Bought by Castle Hook Partners LP

Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 167,710 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $42,967,000. MarketAxess makes up about 0.8% of Castle Hook Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $501,907,000 after purchasing an additional 291,134 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 10.3% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,828,055 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $366,580,000 after acquiring an additional 170,095 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 0.6% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,338,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $343,032,000 after acquiring an additional 8,042 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 53.5% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after acquiring an additional 285,665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 4.2% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 443,714 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,978,000 after acquiring an additional 17,996 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other MarketAxess news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This trade represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $261.71 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $192.42 and a one year high of $297.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $273.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $239.06.

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 firm had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 2.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.13%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on MKTX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $267.50.

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.