Azora Capital LP Purchases 12,935 Shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

Azora Capital LP boosted its position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 32.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 53,150 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,935 shares during the quarter. Azora Capital LP’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $13,617,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MKTX. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. raised its position in shares of MarketAxess by 2.9% in the second quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. now owns 1,566 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in MarketAxess by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 15,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,953,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,479,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of MarketAxess by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 5,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in shares of MarketAxess by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. 99.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

MarketAxess Price Performance

MKTX opened at $258.69 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $273.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $239.99. The firm has a market cap of $9.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 1.05. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $192.42 and a 1 year high of $297.97.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $206.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.17 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 20.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.37 EPS for the current year.

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

MarketAxess Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. MarketAxess’s payout ratio is 40.11%.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $267.67, for a total transaction of $2,676,700.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 562,029 shares in the company, valued at $150,438,302.43. The trade was a 1.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.66% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MKTX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of MarketAxess from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $270.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on MarketAxess from $262.00 to $314.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, MarketAxess presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $267.50.

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.