Carnegie Investment Counsel Buys New Holdings in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Key Points

• Carnegie Investment Counsel has acquired a new stake in Virtu Financial, Inc., purchasing 7,540 shares valued at approximately $287,000.
• Analysts have set a consensus target price of $39.13 for Virtu Financial, with ratings ranging from sell to overweight across different firms.
• Virtu Financial recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.24 per share, reflecting an annualized payout of $0.96 and a yield of 2.17%.

Carnegie Investment Counsel bought a new stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,540 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $287,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Foundry Partners LLC lifted its stake in Virtu Financial by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 18,031 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $687,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Virtu Financial by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 33,397 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,273,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC lifted its stake in Virtu Financial by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 8,074 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $288,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Virtu Financial by 26.0% in the 1st quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 1,670 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Optimist Retirement Group LLC lifted its stake in Virtu Financial by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 8,146 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VIRT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America lowered shares of Virtu Financial from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $43.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Virtu Financial from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $39.13.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Virtu Financial stock opened at $44.17 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a PE ratio of 12.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $42.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.49. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a one year low of $26.50 and a one year high of $45.77.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $497.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $444.23 million. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 32.08% and a net margin of 10.43%. The company's revenue was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Virtu Financial's payout ratio is 27.75%.

Insider Transactions at Virtu Financial

In other Virtu Financial news, Director John Nixon sold 6,965 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.82, for a total transaction of $298,241.30. Following the sale, the director directly owned 33,923 shares in the company, valued at $1,452,582.86. This represents a 17.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Douglas A. Cifu sold 177,561 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.88, for a total transaction of $6,903,571.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 231,306 shares in the company, valued at $8,993,177.28. The trade was a 43.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 47.20% 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.

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