Tidal Investments LLC Acquires Shares of 16,905 Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 16,905 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $603,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VIRT. FMR LLC increased its stake in Virtu Financial by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,375,783 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $227,488,000 after purchasing an additional 1,401,688 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial during the fourth quarter valued at $39,993,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 948,590 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $33,846,000 after acquiring an additional 609,821 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,448,866 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $51,696,000 after acquiring an additional 471,526 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Virtu Financial in the 4th quarter worth $12,196,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.78% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on VIRT shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Virtu Financial from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $43.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Virtu Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 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 report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up previously from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $37.25.

Insider Transactions at Virtu Financial

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu sold 178,320 shares of the business's 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 408,867 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,770,000.19. The trade was a 30.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John Nixon sold 6,965 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 362,846 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,615 in the last three months. 46.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

VIRT traded down $0.62 on Friday, reaching $39.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,319,218 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,190,841. The business's 50-day moving average price is $39.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.66. The company has a market cap of $6.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.68. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.55 and a 12-month high of $44.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $444.23 million. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 27.39% and a net margin of 9.61%. Virtu Financial'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 business earned $0.76 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. Virtu Financial's payout ratio is 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.