Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC Has $13.50 Million Stock Holdings in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 15.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 443,210 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 83,250 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $13,500,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Virtu Financial by 15.0% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 102,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,133,000 after purchasing an additional 13,411 shares during the last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new position in shares of Virtu Financial during the 3rd quarter worth about $640,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial in the 3rd quarter valued at about $332,000. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 470.3% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 72,387 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,205,000 after acquiring an additional 59,695 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP boosted its stake in Virtu Financial by 124.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 53,785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,638,000 after acquiring an additional 29,844 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on VIRT. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of Virtu Financial in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. 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 raised their price target on Virtu Financial from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Virtu Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.50.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Virtu Financial stock opened at $37.95 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $33.36 and its 200-day moving average is $28.91. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a one year low of $16.02 and a one year high of $38.45.

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

Virtu Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 1st will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. Virtu Financial’s payout ratio is currently 48.24%.

About Virtu Financial

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.