Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Increases Stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT - Free Report) by 180.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 948,590 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 609,821 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned about 0.61% of Virtu Financial worth $33,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in Virtu Financial by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 14,434 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $440,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in Virtu Financial by 734.9% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 93,743 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,902,000 after acquiring an additional 82,515 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Virtu Financial by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,974,095 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $151,511,000 after acquiring an additional 1,368,419 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in Virtu Financial by 470.3% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 72,387 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,205,000 after purchasing an additional 59,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $640,000. 45.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Stephen Cavoli sold 34,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 157,703 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,899,669.23. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Brett Fairclough sold 72,967 shares of Virtu Financial stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.84, for a total transaction of $2,688,104.28. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 90,749 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,343,193.16. The trade was a 44.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,967 shares of company stock worth $5,213,964 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 46.70% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on VIRT. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $56.00 to $48.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $33.21.

Virtu Financial Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Virtu Financial stock traded up $0.05 during trading on Monday, hitting $35.15. The stock had a trading volume of 1,351,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,170,796. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.15 and a 12 month high of $41.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $37.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.60. The stock has a market cap of $5.44 billion, a PE ratio of 11.84, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.71.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.32. Virtu Financial had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 27.39%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Virtu Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

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.