Northern Trust Corp Boosts Holdings in Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS)

Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS - Free Report) by 10.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 106,104 shares of the closed-end fund's stock after acquiring an additional 9,793 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.51% of Virtus Investment Partners worth $23,404,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Virtus Investment Partners during the 4th quarter valued at about $75,000. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 61.2% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new stake in shares of Virtus Investment Partners during the 4th quarter valued at about $209,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Virtus Investment Partners during the 4th quarter valued at about $249,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.52% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen dropped 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 report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Virtus Investment Partners from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Virtus Investment Partners and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $149.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped 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 report on Thursday, April 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $167.75.

Virtus Investment Partners Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRTS traded up $1.83 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $178.33. 43,779 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 40,595. The company has a quick ratio of 11.86, a current ratio of 11.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. 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 cap of $1.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.55 and a beta of 1.47. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $163.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.70.

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 for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.41 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. will post 27.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Virtus Investment Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be issued a dividend of $2.25 per share. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. Virtus Investment Partners's dividend payout ratio 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.