Public Sector Pension Investment Board Sells 20,800 Shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lessened its position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 173,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 20,800 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned about 0.11% of Virtu Financial worth $5,297,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in VIRT. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Virtu Financial by 21.0% in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,143 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Virtu Financial by 22.2% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,680 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Virtu Financial by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 19,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $436,000 after purchasing an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in Virtu Financial by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 10,724 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $327,000 after purchasing an additional 717 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Virtu Financial by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 25,167 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.78% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VIRT. Citigroup raised their target price on Virtu Financial from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of Virtu Financial in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.50.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Shares of VIRT stock opened at $37.31 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $33.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.47. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.02 and a 52-week high of $38.45. The stock has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a PE ratio of 18.75, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.38.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $388.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $379.18 million. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 23.22% and a net margin of 7.29%. The firm’s revenue was up 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 2.71 EPS for the current year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.24%.

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.