First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS - Free Report) by 49.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,262 shares of the closed-end fund's stock after acquiring an additional 5,684 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.25% of Virtus Investment Partners worth $3,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 170.3% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 200 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Virtus Investment Partners during the fourth quarter valued at about $75,000. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 61.2% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 395 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners in the fourth quarter valued at about $203,000. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP bought a new position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners in the fourth quarter worth about $209,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.52% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
VRTS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays set a $150.00 target price on Virtus Investment Partners and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. TD Cowen reduced 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. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $149.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $216.00 to $211.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Virtus Investment Partners from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $167.75.
Get Our Latest Report on VRTS
Virtus Investment Partners Price Performance
Shares of VRTS stock traded up $0.54 on Tuesday, reaching $160.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 46,208 shares, compared to its average volume of 40,160. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $164.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $199.69. Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. has a 1 year low of $142.18 and a 1 year high of $252.82. The company has a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.47 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 11.86, a quick ratio of 11.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.
Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The closed-end fund reported $5.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $5.68 by $0.05. Virtus Investment Partners had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 21.56%. The business had revenue of $217.93 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $201.99 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.41 EPS. Analysts forecast that Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. will post 27.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Virtus Investment Partners Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.62%. Virtus Investment Partners's payout ratio is presently 53.41%.
Virtus Investment Partners Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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