Greenwich Wealth Management LLC Acquires New Stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

Greenwich Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 26,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,057,000. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC owned 0.08% of MarketAxess at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its position in shares of MarketAxess by 104.7% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 32,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,684,000 after buying an additional 16,604 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 803.9% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 258,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,682,000 after purchasing an additional 230,087 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $9,585,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in MarketAxess by 638.7% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 21,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,472,000 after purchasing an additional 18,165 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in MarketAxess by 32.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 263,858 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,531,000 after buying an additional 64,627 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MKTX traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $163.98. 223,380 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 752,628. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $156.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $147.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 1.85. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $108.75 and a 52 week high of $195.96.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.10. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.48% and a net margin of 35.22%.The company had revenue of $218.41 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $216.70 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.06 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is currently 36.79%.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, Director William Cruger, Jr. sold 6,164 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.20, for a total transaction of $1,005,964.80. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,033 shares in the company, valued at $658,185.60. This represents a 60.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,464 shares of company stock worth $1,050,069. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MKTX. UBS Group lowered shares of MarketAxess from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Rothschild & Co Redburn reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $134.00 price objective (down from $189.00) on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Thursday, June 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. William Blair cut shares of MarketAxess from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.10.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates an electronic trading platform for institutional fixed-income markets. Through its technology, investors and dealers can trade corporate bonds, government securities, emerging-market debt and other credit products in an electronic environment designed to improve access, execution and transparency.

The company’s offerings include its Open Trading marketplace, which connects a broad network of institutional participants, as well as a range of trading protocols that support different liquidity and execution needs.