Forte Capital LLC ADV Sells 1,427 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Forte Capital LLC ADV cut its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 41.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,427 shares during the period. Forte Capital LLC ADV’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Creative Planning lifted its position in MarketAxess by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 1,777 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 312.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 813 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $208,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in MarketAxess by 25,593.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 22,610 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,793,000 after acquiring an additional 22,522 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 99.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $618,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 42.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 3,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $874,000 after buying an additional 1,024 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total value of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. 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 company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on MKTX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.78.

MarketAxess Price Performance

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $193.96 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 1.02. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $186.84 and a one year high of $296.68. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $216.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $244.73.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (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 research analysts expect that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.82%.

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.