VIRT vs. WDR, JEF, SEIC, SF, MKTX, FRHC, PIPR, CS, NAVI, and WT
Should you be buying Virtu Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Virtu Financial include Waddell & Reed Financial (WDR), Jefferies Financial Group (JEF), SEI Investments (SEIC), Stifel Financial (SF), MarketAxess (MKTX), Freedom (FRHC), Piper Sandler Companies (PIPR), Credit Suisse Group (CS), Navient (NAVI), and WisdomTree (WT). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.
Waddell & Reed Financial (NYSE:WDR) and Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, risk, media sentiment and valuation.
Virtu Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Waddell & Reed Financial. Waddell & Reed Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Virtu Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Waddell & Reed Financial received 23 more outperform votes than Virtu Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.73% of users gave Virtu Financial an outperform vote while only 47.87% of users gave Waddell & Reed Financial an outperform vote.
Virtu Financial has a consensus price target of $22.24, indicating a potential upside of 1.06%. Given Waddell & Reed Financial's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Virtu Financial is more favorable than Waddell & Reed Financial.
Waddell & Reed Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Virtu Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Waddell & Reed Financial pays out 53.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Virtu Financial pays out 67.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
45.8% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Waddell & Reed Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 46.7% of Virtu Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Virtu Financial had 3 more articles in the media than Waddell & Reed Financial. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Virtu Financial and 0 mentions for Waddell & Reed Financial. Waddell & Reed Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.19 beat Virtu Financial's score of 0.00 indicating that Virtu Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Waddell & Reed Financial has a net margin of 9.17% compared to Waddell & Reed Financial's net margin of 6.04%. Waddell & Reed Financial's return on equity of 17.33% beat Virtu Financial's return on equity.
Waddell & Reed Financial has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Virtu Financial has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Virtu Financial beats Waddell & Reed Financial on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding VIRT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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