New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 6,915 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 8.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,915 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.20% of MarketAxess worth $17,174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 65.6% during the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 16,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,781,000 after acquiring an additional 6,625 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in MarketAxess by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,863,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in MarketAxess by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,211,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 230.4% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the period. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new position in MarketAxess during the 4th quarter valued at about $71,103,000. 99.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

MarketAxess Stock Up 2.2 %

MKTX opened at $193.96 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $216.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $244.80. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $186.84 and a twelve month high of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.02.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a net margin of 33.56% and a return on equity of 20.23%. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MKTX. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.