Analyzing Virtu Financial (VIRT) & The Competition

Virtu Financial (NYSE:VIRT) is one of 1,743 publicly-traded companies in the “Capital Markets” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Virtu Financial to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

45.8% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.6% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are owned by institutional investors. 46.8% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.9% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Virtu Financial and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Virtu Financial	1	2	4	0	2.43
Virtu Financial Competitors	5574	20173	22518	647	2.37

Virtu Financial currently has a consensus target price of $69.25, indicating a potential upside of 17.60%. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies have a potential upside of 23.87%. Given Virtu Financial’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Virtu Financial has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Risk & Volatility

Virtu Financial has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Virtu Financial’s competitors have a beta of 0.79, meaning that their average share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Virtu Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Virtu Financial pays out 14.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.2% and pay out 29.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Virtu Financial and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Virtu Financial	$3.63 billion	$468.36 million	8.65
Virtu Financial Competitors	$5.22 billion	$399.89 million	17.36

Virtu Financial’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Virtu Financial. Virtu Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Virtu Financial and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Virtu Financial	14.20%	49.68%	4.50%
Virtu Financial Competitors	317.76%	10.36%	3.68%

Summary

Virtu Financial beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Virtu Financial

Virtu Financial, Inc. is a financial technology firm and electronic market maker that provides liquidity across a range of global financial markets. The company uses technology and quantitative analysis to facilitate trading in asset classes including equities, exchange-traded funds, options, futures, currencies, fixed income and commodities. In addition to market making, Virtu offers execution services and trading technology for institutional investors, broker-dealers and other market participants.