Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) Price Target Increased to $25.00 by Analysts at Bank of America

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) had its price target upped by Bank of America from $22.00 to $25.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

VIRT has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $21.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 26th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Virtu Financial from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Virtu Financial currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $22.24.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Virtu Financial stock traded down $0.25 on Thursday, reaching $22.15. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 615,869 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,082,232. 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 company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.51, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $19.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.82. Virtu Financial has a twelve month low of $16.02 and a twelve month high of $22.80.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $535.98 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $272.96 million. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 17.14% and a net margin of 6.04%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Virtu Financial will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.13%.

Insider Transactions at Virtu Financial

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu acquired 50,000 shares of Virtu Financial stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $16.21 per share, with a total value of $810,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 584,132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,468,779.72. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 44.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VIRT. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Virtu Financial during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,575,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Virtu Financial by 7.6% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 8,347,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $144,158,000 after purchasing an additional 588,749 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in Virtu Financial by 156.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 801,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,834,000 after purchasing an additional 489,264 shares during the last quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. boosted its position in Virtu Financial by 913.6% during the fourth quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 306,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,205,000 after purchasing an additional 276,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Virtu Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,294,000. 45.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.