DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Buys 13,633 Shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 16.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 98,435 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,633 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned about 0.06% of Virtu Financial worth $1,980,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors bought a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial during the first quarter worth approximately $58,287,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Virtu Financial during the 4th quarter worth $19,031,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 59.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,164,023 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,272,000 after acquiring an additional 809,085 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 553.8% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 810,853 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,180,000 after purchasing an additional 686,824 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 8,347,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $144,158,000 after purchasing an additional 588,749 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on VIRT. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Virtu Financial from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Virtu Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $21.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.75.

Insider Activity at Virtu Financial

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu purchased 50,000 shares of Virtu Financial stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $16.21 per share, with a total value of $810,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 584,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,468,779.72. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 44.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

NASDAQ VIRT opened at $20.62 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.40. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.02 and a 52-week high of $21.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.61.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $535.98 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $272.96 million. Virtu Financial had a net margin of 6.22% and a return on equity of 16.94%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.57%.

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.