SG Americas Securities LLC Takes Position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 87,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,348,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ibex Wealth Advisors lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 186,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,120,000 after acquiring an additional 2,289 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt bought a new stake in shares of Virtu Financial during the 1st quarter valued at $1,704,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 1,138 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,311 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after acquiring an additional 701 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 33,397 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,273,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the period. 45.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on VIRT shares. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America downgraded Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Virtu Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Virtu Financial in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.25.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Virtu Financial stock opened at $41.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The company has a market capitalization of $6.34 billion, a PE ratio of 13.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.68. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 12 month low of $21.59 and a 12 month high of $44.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $39.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.97.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $497.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $444.23 million. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 27.39% and a net margin of 9.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 30.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Virtu Financial

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu sold 178,320 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.57, for a total value of $6,877,802.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 408,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,770,000.19. This represents a 30.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director John Nixon sold 6,965 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.82, for a total value of $298,241.30. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 33,923 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,452,582.86. The trade was a 17.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 362,846 shares of company stock worth $14,079,615. 47.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.