MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) Shares Sold by Inspire Investing LLC

Inspire Investing LLC trimmed its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 16.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 640 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $757,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accent Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Park Place Capital Corp acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in MarketAxess in the third quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in MarketAxess by 555.6% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other MarketAxess news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.57, for a total transaction of $72,171.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Richard M. Mcvey sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,438,302.43. This trade represents a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 30,300 shares of company stock worth $8,183,871. 2.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

MarketAxess Stock Performance

MKTX stock opened at $224.43 on Friday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $296.68. The firm has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $236.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $247.01.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $206.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.17 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America dropped their target price on 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 lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $255.00 to $251.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price target on MarketAxess from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, MarketAxess has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $261.30.

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.