Sanctuary Advisors LLC Sells 3,690 Shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 10.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,792 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,690 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $1,134,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VIRT. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 38.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,974,095 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $151,511,000 after buying an additional 1,368,419 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,815,000. Portolan Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $11,918,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 400.0% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 328,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,008,000 after buying an additional 262,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 834,418 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,027,000 after buying an additional 183,823 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.78% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Brett Fairclough sold 72,967 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.84, for a total transaction of $2,688,104.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 90,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,343,193.16. This represents a 44.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Stephen Cavoli sold 34,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.41, for a total value of $1,271,940.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 157,703 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,899,669.23. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 140,967 shares of company stock worth $5,213,964 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 46.70% of the company’s stock.

Virtu Financial Stock Up 1.3 %

Virtu Financial stock opened at $35.55 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $5.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.46. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.08 and a twelve month high of $41.38.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.32. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 27.39% and a net margin of 9.61%. On average, analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.70%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on VIRT. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Virtu Financial from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Virtu Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.36.

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.