Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Makes New Investment in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 25,915 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $988,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 0.8% in the first quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 33,397 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,273,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 8,074 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 14,826 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 19,635 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $701,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 172.7% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 870 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.78% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research report 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 report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Virtu Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $37.25.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ VIRT traded up $0.63 on Friday, hitting $44.38. 985,756 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,061,905. The company has a market capitalization of $6.84 billion, a PE ratio of 12.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.68. The business's fifty day moving average is $41.15 and its 200 day moving average is $38.40. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.59 and a 52 week high of $44.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.49.

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

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 30th. Virtu Financial's dividend payout ratio is currently 27.75%.

Insider Activity at Virtu Financial

In other Virtu Financial news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu sold 178,320 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.57, for a total transaction of $6,877,802.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 408,867 shares in the company, valued at $15,770,000.19. This represents a 30.37% 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, Director John Nixon sold 6,965 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.82, for a total transaction of $298,241.30. Following the sale, the director now owns 33,923 shares in the company, valued at $1,452,582.86. The trade was a 17.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 362,846 shares of company stock worth $14,079,615. Corporate insiders own 47.20% of the company's stock.

Virtu Financial Company 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.