New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $7.59 Million Stock Holdings in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its position in shares of MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 33,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 77 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $7,594,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,000,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $452,246,000 after acquiring an additional 236,497 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of MarketAxess by 8,277.4% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 119,797 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,079,000 after acquiring an additional 118,367 shares during the period. Stiles Financial Services Inc increased its holdings in MarketAxess by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc now owns 6,724 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,522,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in MarketAxess in the fourth quarter valued at about $358,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

MarketAxess Price Performance

Shares of MarketAxess stock opened at $191.54 on Thursday. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $188.88 and a 1 year high of $296.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $218.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.32. The company has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 1.02.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 20.23% and a net margin of 33.56%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MarketAxess Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 5th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is an increase from MarketAxess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. MarketAxess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $251.00 to $225.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $256.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $235.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on MarketAxess from $330.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on MarketAxess from $258.00 to $264.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Scott Pintoff sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 8,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,997,212.14. This trade represents a 3.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.