Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Reduces Stock Position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its position in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT - Free Report) by 60.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 98,191 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 153,087 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned 0.06% of Virtu Financial worth $3,504,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial during the third quarter worth approximately $1,081,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 391,548 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $13,970,000 after buying an additional 5,371 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 60.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 55,486 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,691,000 after buying an additional 20,843 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP lifted its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 124.7% in the third quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 53,785 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,638,000 after buying an additional 29,844 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Virtu Financial by 48.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 358,065 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $10,907,000 after acquiring an additional 117,062 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.78% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on VIRT shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Virtu Financial from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $31.36.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 value of $2,688,104.28. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 90,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,343,193.16. This trade represents a 44.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Stephen Cavoli sold 34,000 shares of Virtu Financial 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 157,703 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,899,669.23. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,967 shares of company stock valued at $5,213,964 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 46.70% of the company's stock.

Virtu Financial Trading Up 0.1 %

VIRT traded up $0.05 on Friday, hitting $37.76. The company had a trading volume of 717,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,168,742. The company's fifty day moving average price is $37.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.38. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.15 and a 1 year high of $41.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $5.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.71, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.57.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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, equities analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Virtu Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.32%.

Virtu Financial 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.