Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) PT Raised to $224.00 at Morgan Stanley

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $211.00 to $224.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the closed-end fund’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Virtus Investment Partners from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen cut Virtus Investment Partners from a buy rating to a hold rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $285.00 to $264.00 in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Virtus Investment Partners from $264.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th.

Virtus Investment Partners Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ VRTS opened at $218.58 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.57 billion, a PE ratio of 12.34 and a beta of 1.52. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $236.37 and its 200 day moving average is $219.99. Virtus Investment Partners has a twelve month low of $165.00 and a twelve month high of $263.39.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The closed-end fund reported $6.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.96 by $0.15. Virtus Investment Partners had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 15.45%. The business had revenue of $214.59 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.20 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.17 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Virtus Investment Partners will post 26.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtus Investment Partners Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.90 per share. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. Virtus Investment Partners’s payout ratio is 42.91%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Virtus Investment Partners

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRTS. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 87.1% in the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 146,100 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $27,969,000 after purchasing an additional 68,002 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners during the fourth quarter valued at $12,827,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 896,632 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $215,182,000 after buying an additional 48,669 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 39.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,635 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $20,125,000 after buying an additional 28,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Virtus Investment Partners by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,188,513 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $285,232,000 after buying an additional 27,115 shares in the last quarter. 80.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Virtus Investment Partners

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individual and institutional clients. It launches separate client focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm launches equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients.