Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) Shares Cross Above 200 Day Moving Average - Here's What Happened

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS - Get Free Report) shares passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $178.88 and traded as high as $198.85. Virtus Investment Partners shares last traded at $198.56, with a volume of 80,096 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRTS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $211.00 to $234.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. 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. 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. Finally, Barclays raised 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, July 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Virtus Investment Partners currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $188.25.

Virtus Investment Partners Stock Performance

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 company's 50-day moving average price is $191.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.88. The company has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 1.41.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 25th. The closed-end fund reported $6.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.17 by $0.08. Virtus Investment Partners had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 21.56%. The company had revenue of $210.53 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $191.90 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.53 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. will post 27.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtus Investment Partners Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of $2.40 per share. This is a positive change from Virtus Investment Partners's previous quarterly dividend of $2.25. This represents a $9.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.8%. Virtus Investment Partners's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.82%.

Institutional Trading of Virtus Investment Partners

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Virtus Investment Partners by 11.6% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 5,376 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $931,000 after buying an additional 558 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Virtus Investment Partners by 55.3% during the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 14,035 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $2,419,000 after buying an additional 4,999 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Virtus Investment Partners by 35.9% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,957 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 781 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Virtus Investment Partners by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,849 shares of the closed-end fund's stock valued at $849,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 6,814 shares in the last quarter. 80.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

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