Centaurus Financial Inc. Has $109,000 Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Centaurus Financial Inc. lowered its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 17.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 89 shares during the period. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $109,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the second quarter valued at $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 47.4% during the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MKTX. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $267.50.

MarketAxess Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:MKTX opened at $261.71 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 11.85 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $273.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $239.06. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $297.97.

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

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

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.11%.

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.