Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Purchases New Stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. $VIRT

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VIRT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $317,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 1.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,999,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,987,000 after purchasing an additional 142,890 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 64.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,370,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,149,000 after acquiring an additional 926,376 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 2.6% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,785,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,374,000 after acquiring an additional 44,976 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 53.1% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,367,583 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,549,000 after acquiring an additional 474,177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,359,452 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,318,000 after acquiring an additional 176,184 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on VIRT shares. Zacks Research raised Virtu Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Virtu Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $57.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Virtu Financial has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.67.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

Virtu Financial stock opened at $55.10 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $46.83 and a 200-day moving average of $39.94. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.55 and a 1 year high of $56.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $8.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.62.

Virtu Financial (NYSE:VIRT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.58. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 51.63% and a net margin of 14.17%.The company had revenue of $786.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $613.12 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.30 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 30.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 5.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.89%.

Insider Activity at Virtu Financial

In other news, COO Joseph Molluso sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.88, for a total value of $7,776,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 326,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,697,624.80. This represents a 37.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Brett Fairclough sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.06, for a total value of $1,501,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 42,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,126,198.38. This represents a 41.39% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 46.76% of the company’s stock.

Virtu Financial Profile

Virtu Financial, Inc is a technology-driven electronic trading firm and market maker that provides liquidity and price discovery across a wide range of financial instruments. Leveraging advanced analytics, high-performance computing and proprietary algorithms, Virtu operates in equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities and derivative products. Its technology platform is designed to capture bid-ask spreads in real time, manage risk through automated controls and adapt to changing market conditions.

The company offers a suite of execution services and market-making solutions to institutional clients such as asset managers, banks, broker-dealers and hedge funds.