Bangor Savings Bank Trims Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Bangor Savings Bank lowered its holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm 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 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in MarketAxess during the 3rd quarter worth about $54,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 555.6% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in MarketAxess by 160.3% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the period. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at MarketAxess

In other news, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total value of $5,435,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 592,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $160,883,880.75. This trade represents a 3.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of MarketAxess stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. The trade was a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $193.00 to $185.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of MarketAxess from $276.00 to $255.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $265.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $262.10.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $222.34 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $252.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.51. The firm has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a PEG ratio of 9.49 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.05. MarketAxess had a net margin of 34.32% and a return on equity of 20.93%. The business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.38 EPS for the current year.

MarketAxess Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a 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%.

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.