USA Financial Formulas Trims Stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

USA Financial Formulas reduced its stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 92.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,237 shares during the quarter. USA Financial Formulas’ holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $32,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VIRT. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Virtu Financial by 28.3% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 834,418 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,027,000 after acquiring an additional 183,823 shares in the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new position in Virtu Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $3,694,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Virtu Financial by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 36,843 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,315,000 after acquiring an additional 2,624 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its stake in Virtu Financial by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 368,191 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,137,000 after acquiring an additional 33,730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. grew its stake in Virtu Financial by 439.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 2,361 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 1,923 shares in the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VIRT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Virtu Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Virtu Financial news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu sold 177,561 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.88, for a total value of $6,903,571.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 231,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,993,177.28. This trade represents a 43.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John Nixon sold 6,965 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.82, for a total transaction of $298,241.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,452,582.86. This represents a 17.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 362,846 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,615. Insiders own 47.20% of the company’s stock.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Shares of VIRT opened at $40.73 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.68. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.59 and a twelve month high of $44.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The company has a 50 day moving average of $39.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.91.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $497.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $444.23 million. Virtu Financial had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 27.39%. Virtu Financial’s revenue was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.75%.

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.