Insider Selling: Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) EVP Sells 34,000 Shares of Stock

Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) EVP Stephen Cavoli sold 34,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.41, for a total transaction of $1,271,940.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 157,703 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,899,669.23. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Stephen Cavoli also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, February 14th, Stephen Cavoli sold 34,000 shares of Virtu Financial stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.88, for a total transaction of $1,253,920.00.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VIRT opened at $37.05 on Friday. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.62 and a 1-year 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $37.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.13. The company has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a PE ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.46.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.32. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 27.39% and a net margin of 9.61%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on VIRT shares. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of 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 increased their price target on Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Virtu Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.36.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VIRT. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,375,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $227,488,000 after buying an additional 1,401,688 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the 4th quarter worth $39,993,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the 3rd quarter worth $29,815,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 948,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,846,000 after buying an additional 609,821 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 48.2% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,448,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,696,000 after buying an additional 471,526 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.78% of the company’s stock.

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.