Bailard Inc. Decreases Position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Bailard Inc. decreased its holdings in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 26.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 24,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,700 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Virtu Financial by 112.3% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 1,127 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Virtu Financial by 1,867.8% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 3,885 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Virtu Financial in the 3rd quarter valued at about $184,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the third quarter worth about $195,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 212.0% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $269,000 after buying an additional 10,600 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.78% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu acquired 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $16.21 per share, with a total value of $810,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 584,132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,468,779.72. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 44.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VIRT. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Virtu Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Virtu Financial from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup raised their price target on Virtu Financial from $22.50 to $24.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.24.

Virtu Financial Trading Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ VIRT opened at $22.02 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $19.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.87. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.02 and a 12 month high of $22.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.40.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.13). Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 17.14% and a net margin of 6.04%. The firm had revenue of $535.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $272.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 15th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.36%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 67.13%.

Virtu Financial Company Profile

Virtu Financial, Inc operates as a financial services company in the United States, Asia Pacific, Canada, EMEA, Ireland, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Market Making and Execution Services. Its product includes offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, capital markets, and multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology.