Morgan Stanley Raises Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) Price Target to $224.00

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) had its price target hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $211.00 to $224.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the closed-end fund’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on VRTS. StockNews.com lowered Virtus Investment Partners from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen lowered Virtus Investment Partners from a buy rating to a hold rating and cut their target price for the stock from $285.00 to $264.00 in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Virtus Investment Partners from $264.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th.

Virtus Investment Partners Stock Up 2.3 %

VRTS opened at $224.91 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $235.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $220.17. Virtus Investment Partners has a 52 week low of $165.00 and a 52 week high of $263.39. The firm has a market cap of $1.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.70 and a beta of 1.52.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The closed-end fund reported $6.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.96 by $0.15. Virtus Investment Partners had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 15.45%. The firm had revenue of $214.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.20 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.17 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Virtus Investment Partners will post 26.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Virtus Investment Partners Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.90 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $7.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.38%. Virtus Investment Partners’s payout ratio is presently 42.91%.

Institutional Trading of Virtus Investment Partners

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 87.1% during the 4th quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 146,100 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $27,969,000 after buying an additional 68,002 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners during the 4th quarter worth about $12,827,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 896,632 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $215,182,000 after buying an additional 48,669 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 39.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,635 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $20,125,000 after buying an additional 28,359 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,188,513 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $285,232,000 after buying an additional 27,115 shares during the period. 80.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Virtus Investment Partners Company Profile

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individual and institutional clients. It launches separate client focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm launches equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients.