Advisors Capital Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Virtu Financial, Inc. $VIRT

Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 8.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 176,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,699 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC owned about 0.11% of Virtu Financial worth $6,721,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VIRT. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial by 243.0% in the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 554 shares during the last quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. bought a new position in shares of Virtu Financial in the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial by 1,624.1% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 942 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Virtu Financial in the 1st quarter worth $54,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial by 26.0% in the 1st quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Virtu Financial news, COO Brett Fairclough sold 90,701 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.40, for a total transaction of $3,845,722.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 46.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Virtu Financial Trading Down 4.0%

Shares of VIRT opened at $37.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.71, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.42. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.82 and a twelve month high of $45.77.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VIRT. Bank of America lowered shares of Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 target price (up previously from $40.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.75.

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.