California Public Employees Retirement System Has $11.96 Million Position in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. $MKTX

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its stake in MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) by 25.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 72,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,664 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in MarketAxess were worth $11,965,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in MarketAxess by 151.0% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 8.4% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its position in shares of MarketAxess by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 3,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $689,000 after purchasing an additional 921 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in MarketAxess by 200.0% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 120 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of MarketAxess during the 2nd quarter worth $406,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MKTX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of MarketAxess in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of MarketAxess from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods started coverage on shares of MarketAxess in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $195.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on MarketAxess from $168.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised MarketAxess from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $163.18.

MarketAxess Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of MKTX opened at $116.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.17 and a current ratio of 2.17. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $120.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $153.10. The firm has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.79, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.88. MarketAxess Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $108.75 and a fifty-two week high of $214.42.

MarketAxess (NASDAQ:MKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $233.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.91 million. MarketAxess had a return on equity of 22.28% and a net margin of 35.53%.The business’s revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that MarketAxess Holdings Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current year.

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess Holdings Inc operates a leading global electronic trading platform specializing in fixed-income securities and related products. The company’s network enables institutional investors and broker-dealers to trade corporate bonds, municipal securities, emerging markets debt, U.S. Treasuries and credit default swaps in an automated, multi-dealer environment. MarketAxess also offers portfolio trading, data analytics, best-execution tools and post-trade services to streamline workflows and enhance price discovery across its marketplace.

In addition to core voice-like trading protocols, MarketAxess provides Open Trading®, an anonymous, all-to-all trading protocol designed to improve liquidity and transaction efficiency.