First Bank & Trust Decreases Stock Holdings in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

First Bank & Trust reduced its stake in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,201 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $640,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VIRT. FMR LLC increased its position in Virtu Financial by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,974,095 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $151,511,000 after buying an additional 1,368,419 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Virtu Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,815,000. Portolan Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Virtu Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $11,918,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in Virtu Financial by 400.0% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 328,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,008,000 after buying an additional 262,835 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Virtu Financial by 28.3% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 834,418 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,027,000 after buying an additional 183,823 shares in the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on VIRT shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Virtu Financial from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Virtu Financial from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.36.

Virtu Financial Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of VIRT stock opened at $38.27 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 1.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.92 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.46. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.62 and a fifty-two week high of $41.38.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.32. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 27.39% and a net margin of 9.61%. Equities analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Virtu Financial news, COO Brett Fairclough sold 72,967 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.84, for a total transaction of $2,688,104.28. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 90,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,343,193.16. This represents a 44.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Stephen Cavoli sold 34,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.41, for a total value of $1,271,940.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 157,703 shares in the company, valued at $5,899,669.23. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,967 shares of company stock valued at $5,213,964 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 46.70% of the company’s stock.

Virtu Financial Company 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.