Algebris UK Ltd. Takes Position in Virtu Financial, Inc. $VIRT

Algebris UK Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VIRT) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 671,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,377,000. Virtu Financial makes up 1.1% of Algebris UK Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,999,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $354,987,000 after buying an additional 142,890 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Virtu Financial by 64.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,370,400 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,149,000 after purchasing an additional 926,376 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Virtu Financial by 2.6% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,785,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,374,000 after purchasing an additional 44,976 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in Virtu Financial by 53.1% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,367,583 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,549,000 after purchasing an additional 474,177 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Virtu Financial by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,359,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,318,000 after purchasing an additional 176,184 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VIRT. Zacks Research raised Virtu Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $57.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Virtu Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Virtu Financial has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.67.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:VIRT opened at $53.70 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.21. The company has a market cap of $8.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $31.55 and a 52 week high of $56.48.

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

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 1st. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Virtu Financial’s payout ratio is 15.89%.

Insider Activity at Virtu Financial

In other Virtu Financial news, COO Brett Fairclough sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 owned 42,473 shares in the company, valued at $2,126,198.38. The trade was a 41.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 46.76% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Virtu Financial

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.