21,724 Shares in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Bought by First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 21,724 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,910,000. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. owned about 0.06% of MarketAxess at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 2,889.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 339,261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,032,000 after acquiring an additional 327,913 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 17.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,959,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $501,907,000 after acquiring an additional 291,134 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $42,967,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 139,949 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of MarketAxess during the third quarter valued at $30,229,000. Institutional investors own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ MKTX opened at $224.43 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $236.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $247.31. The company has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a PE ratio of 30.41, a PEG ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 1.03. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $296.68.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $206.70 million for 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. Research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America dropped their price target 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. Finally, 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 report on Monday, January 13th. Two research 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 MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $261.30.

Insider Activity at MarketAxess

In other 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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,438,302.43. This represents a 1.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock valued at $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess 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.