Fifth Third Bancorp Grows Stock Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 75 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in MarketAxess in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,088,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the third quarter worth $1,966,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased 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 valued at $14,265,000 after buying an additional 10,361 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 461.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 57,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,041,000 after acquiring an additional 47,568 shares during the period. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 15,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,926,000 after acquiring an additional 3,121 shares in the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $261.30.

MarketAxess Trading Down 1.9 %

MKTX stock opened at $218.99 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.67, a PEG ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $233.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $247.55. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 12 month low of $192.42 and a 12 month high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.93% and a net margin of 34.32%. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current year.

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.