Quadrature Capital Ltd Makes New $779,000 Investment in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 25,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $779,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VIRT. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new stake in Virtu Financial in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,971,000. Seven Eight Capital LP raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 41.9% in the 2nd quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 94,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,124,000 after acquiring an additional 27,948 shares during the period. Bridgewater Associates LP raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 124.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 53,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,638,000 after acquiring an additional 29,844 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in Virtu Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $381,000. Finally, Scientech Research LLC bought a new position in Virtu Financial during the second quarter worth $395,000. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on VIRT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Virtu Financial in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Virtu Financial from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Virtu Financial currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.50.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

Virtu Financial stock opened at $36.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market cap of $5.61 billion, a PE ratio of 18.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.43. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.02 and a 12-month high of $38.45. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $33.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.26.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $388.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $379.18 million. Virtu Financial had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 23.22%. The firm’s revenue was up 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Virtu Financial’s payout ratio is 48.24%.

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.