MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Trexquant Investment LP

Trexquant Investment LP reduced its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 83.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 28,783 shares during the quarter. Trexquant Investment LP’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,336,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,434,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,475,000 after buying an additional 90,805 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in MarketAxess by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after buying an additional 236,497 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its stake in MarketAxess by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,369,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,472,000 after buying an additional 30,180 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,113,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $251,106,000 after purchasing an additional 36,431 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 630,526 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $142,524,000 after purchasing an additional 15,713 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.5 %

MarketAxess stock opened at $203.19 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 27.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $205.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $235.86. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $186.84 and a 52 week high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. On average, equities analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.79 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a $0.76 dividend. This is a boost from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 41.82%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MKTX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. William Blair initiated coverage on MarketAxess in a research note on Friday, April 4th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays boosted their target price on MarketAxess from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded MarketAxess from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.11.

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.