Congress Asset Management Co. Cuts Stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. $VIRT

Congress Asset Management Co. reduced its stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 3.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 332,341 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,638 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $14,886,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,568,548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $364,753,000 after acquiring an additional 165,396 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 83.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,473,165 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,157,000 after acquiring an additional 670,774 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 50.9% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,320,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,764,000 after acquiring an additional 445,586 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 69.5% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,063,011 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,522,000 after acquiring an additional 435,958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 11.5% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 930,110 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,856,000 after acquiring an additional 95,692 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on VIRT. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Virtu Financial from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price objective (up from $40.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.75.

Virtu Financial Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:VIRT opened at $35.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.16, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.49. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.38. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.82 and a 52-week high of $45.77.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 1st were given a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.82%.

Insider Transactions at Virtu Financial

In other Virtu Financial news, COO Brett Fairclough sold 90,701 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.40, for a total value of $3,845,722.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 47.20% of the company’s stock.

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.