Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Buys Shares of 25,915 Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

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

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VIRT. TrueMark Investments LLC bought a new stake in Virtu Financial during the first quarter valued at about $281,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 1.2% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 67,877 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,586,000 after purchasing an additional 807 shares in the last quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 12.4% during the 1st quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 19,274 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $735,000 after purchasing an additional 2,128 shares during the period. Pullen Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 44,922 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,712,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Virtu Financial in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,348,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.78% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VIRT. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America cut shares of Virtu Financial from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $43.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Virtu Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $37.25.

Insider Transactions at Virtu Financial

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

Virtu Financial Trading Up 1.7%

NASDAQ VIRT traded up $0.75 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $43.84. 696,659 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,065,609. The stock has a market cap of $6.76 billion, a PE ratio of 12.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.68. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.59 and a 52 week high of $44.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $40.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $497.14 million for 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 for the quarter was up 30.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. Analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 30th. 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.