Verition Fund Management LLC Sells 33,105 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Verition Fund Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 44.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 40,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 33,105 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $10,469,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new position in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC raised its position in MarketAxess by 47.4% in the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $54,000. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $267.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Down 1.2 %

MKTX opened at $258.69 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $297.97. The business has a 50 day moving average of $273.49 and a 200-day moving average of $239.83. The stock has a market cap of $9.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 1.05.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.17 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 earnings per share for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.11%.

MarketAxess declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 6th that authorizes the company to repurchase $250.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 2.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

MarketAxess Company 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.