Bangor Savings Bank Sells 230 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Bangor Savings Bank lessened its stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 230 shares during the period. Bangor Savings Bank’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $1,416,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MKTX. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 461.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 57,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,041,000 after acquiring an additional 47,568 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 40.2% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 22.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 55,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 242.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,337,000 after buying an additional 5,818 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co grew its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 3.7% during the third quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 10,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays decreased their price target on MarketAxess from $289.00 to $260.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Bank of America decreased their target price on MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX opened at $222.34 on Tuesday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.42 and a 12-month high of $296.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.49 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $252.49 and a 200 day moving average of $245.51.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The firm had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. MarketAxess’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were paid a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.11%.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’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 sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. The trade was a 3.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

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.