Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 71,810 Shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. $VIRT

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 74.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 168,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 71,810 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $7,534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of VIRT. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Virtu Financial by 83.6% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,473,165 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $56,157,000 after acquiring an additional 670,774 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial in the 1st quarter worth approximately $18,956,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 50.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,320,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,764,000 after buying an additional 445,586 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in Virtu Financial during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $9,918,000. Finally, Hancock Whitney Corp raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 698.3% during the first quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 293,755 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,198,000 after buying an additional 256,958 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VIRT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised Virtu Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $48.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 target price (up from $40.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a report on Monday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.71.

Virtu Financial Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:VIRT opened at $35.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.49. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $31.89 and a 1 year high of $45.77. The company has a market cap of $5.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.34, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $34.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.20.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $274.00 million during the quarter. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 32.08% and a net margin of 10.43%. Sell-side analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Investors of record on Monday, December 1st will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 1st. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.78%.

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.