Principal Financial Group Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS - Free Report) by 3.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 39,629 shares of the closed-end fund's stock after buying an additional 1,290 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.57% of Virtus Investment Partners worth $6,830,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Virtus Investment Partners by 11.6% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 5,376 shares of the closed-end fund's stock worth $931,000 after purchasing an additional 558 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Virtus Investment Partners by 55.3% in the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 14,035 shares of the closed-end fund's stock worth $2,419,000 after purchasing an additional 4,999 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Virtus Investment Partners by 35.9% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,957 shares of the closed-end fund's stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in Virtus Investment Partners by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,849 shares of the closed-end fund's stock worth $849,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Virtus Investment Partners by 8,517.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,894 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $1,188,000 after acquiring an additional 6,814 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.52% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $171.00 price objective on shares of Virtus Investment Partners and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $220.00 to $158.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $150.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $216.00 to $211.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Virtus Investment Partners from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $182.50.

Virtus Investment Partners Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of VRTS traded down $0.82 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $209.51. 4,110 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 53,392. The firm has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.40 and a beta of 1.44. Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. has a 12-month low of $142.18 and a 12-month high of $252.82. The company has a current ratio of 11.86, a quick ratio of 11.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $181.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.83.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The closed-end fund reported $5.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $5.68 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $217.93 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $201.99 million. Virtus Investment Partners had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 21.56%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.41 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. will post 27.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtus Investment Partners Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a $2.25 dividend. This represents a $9.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. Virtus Investment Partners's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.41%.

About Virtus Investment Partners

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individual and institutional clients. It launches separate client focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm launches equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients.