Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $2.25 (NASDAQ:VRTS)

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 15th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of 2.25 per share by the closed-end fund on Friday, August 15th. This represents a $9.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.10%.

Virtus Investment Partners has increased its dividend payment by an average of 21.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 7 years. Virtus Investment Partners has a payout ratio of 35.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Virtus Investment Partners to earn $30.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $9.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.9%.

Virtus Investment Partners Price Performance

Shares of VRTS opened at $176.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.44 and a beta of 1.47. Virtus Investment Partners has a twelve month low of $142.18 and a twelve month high of $252.82. The company has a 50 day moving average of $163.09 and a 200-day moving average of $197.35. The company has a quick ratio of 11.86, a current ratio of 11.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The closed-end fund reported $5.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.68 by $0.05. Virtus Investment Partners had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 21.56%. The business had revenue of $217.93 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $201.99 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Virtus Investment Partners will post 27.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRTS has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Virtus Investment Partners from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Virtus Investment Partners from $220.00 to $158.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Virtus Investment Partners from $216.00 to $211.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays set a $150.00 price objective on Virtus Investment Partners and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Virtus Investment Partners from $149.00 to $152.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Virtus Investment Partners presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $167.75.

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.