Short Interest in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Increases By 15.5%

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 758,000 shares, a growth of 15.5% from the November 15th total of 656,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 394,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MarketAxess

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in MarketAxess by 17.5% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 170,095 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $343,032,000 after buying an additional 8,042 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 14.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,076,877 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $275,122,000 after buying an additional 139,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in MarketAxess by 53.5% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 820,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,447,000 after buying an additional 285,665 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MKTX traded down $2.48 on Friday, reaching $233.73. 292,521 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 410,815. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a PE ratio of 31.67, a P/E/G ratio of 10.54 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $270.45 and its 200-day moving average is $241.85. MarketAxess has a fifty-two week low of $192.42 and a fifty-two week high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 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%. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that MarketAxess will post 7.38 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 40.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America dropped their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $266.70.

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.