Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Increases Stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its holdings in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 7.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 135,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,035 shares during the quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp owned about 0.09% of Virtu Financial worth $2,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Virtu Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $247,000. Quarry LP increased its position in Virtu Financial by 79.9% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,680 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 746 shares during the last quarter. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new position in Virtu Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $1,478,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in Virtu Financial by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC acquired a new position in Virtu Financial in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,722,000. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on VIRT shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Virtu Financial from $19.20 to $21.70 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Virtu Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Virtu Financial from $20.00 to $21.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Citigroup raised their price target on Virtu Financial from $22.50 to $24.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Virtu Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.24.

Virtu Financial Stock Down 0.6 %

VIRT stock traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $23.09. The company had a trading volume of 632,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,121,750. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.36. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.02 and a fifty-two week high of $25.68.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.12. Virtu Financial had a net margin of 6.04% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $366.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $334.79 million. Analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 1st were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. Virtu Financial’s payout ratio is 67.13%.

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.