UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC Grows Stock Position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 12.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 199,490 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,503 shares during the quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $7,118,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vident Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial by 124.2% in the 4th quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 15,618 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $557,000 after purchasing an additional 8,653 shares during the period. Wexford Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $203,000. Two Sigma Investments LP grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 834,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,771,000 after buying an additional 73,304 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $603,000. Finally, Prana Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $985,000. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VIRT shares. Bank of America lowered Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Virtu Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.25.

Insider Transactions at Virtu Financial

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu sold 178,320 shares of Virtu Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.57, for a total value of $6,877,802.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 408,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,770,000.19. This trade represents a 30.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John Nixon sold 6,965 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.82, for a total value of $298,241.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 33,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,452,582.86. This trade represents a 17.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 362,846 shares of company stock worth $14,079,615. 46.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Shares of VIRT opened at $39.99 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $6.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.20 and a 200-day moving average of $37.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.59 and a 52 week high of $44.58.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $497.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $444.23 million. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 27.39% and a net margin of 9.61%. The business’s revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. Virtu Financial’s payout ratio is 27.75%.

About Virtu Financial

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.