Cerity Partners LLC Purchases 1,200 Shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 9.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 14,434 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VIRT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 5.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 48,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after buying an additional 2,314 shares during the period. Comerica Bank raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 244.7% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 12,401 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after acquiring an additional 8,803 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 23.2% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $160,000 after acquiring an additional 1,346 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Virtu Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $226,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in Virtu Financial during the second quarter worth $280,000. 45.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VIRT has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Virtu Financial from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Virtu Financial in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.50.

Virtu Financial Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of VIRT stock opened at $36.30 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.31. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.02 and a 1 year high of $38.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 0.43.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.03. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 23.22% and a net margin of 7.29%. The firm had revenue of $388.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $379.18 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. Virtu Financial’s payout ratio is 48.24%.

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.