Virtu Financial LLC Takes Position in UWM Holdings Corporation $UWMC

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of UWM Holdings Corporation (NYSE:UWMC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 410,785 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,799,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of UWMC. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of UWM by 504.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,498,979 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,566,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250,845 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of UWM by 258.0% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 103,471 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,000 after buying an additional 74,565 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in UWM by 78.3% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 126,251 shares of the company’s stock valued at $553,000 after buying an additional 55,437 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC bought a new position in UWM during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $100,000. Finally, Delta Global Management LP raised its stake in UWM by 24.9% during the fourth quarter. Delta Global Management LP now owns 1,181,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,177,000 after buying an additional 235,290 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 53.59% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at UWM

In related news, CEO Ishbia Mat sold 1,003,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.57, for a total transaction of $3,581,898.81. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,995,754 shares in the company, valued at $10,694,841.78. This represents a 25.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 21,940,912 shares of company stock worth $80,571,523 over the last three months. 80.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

UWM Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:UWMC opened at $2.19 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.13 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.13, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. UWM Holdings Corporation has a 1 year low of $2.14 and a 1 year high of $7.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $3.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.15.

UWM (NYSE:UWMC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.03. UWM had a return on equity of 19.01% and a net margin of 1.92%.The company had revenue of $901.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $709.85 million. Sell-side analysts expect that UWM Holdings Corporation will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

UWM Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 18th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 18th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 18.2%. UWM’s payout ratio is currently 148.15%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

UWMC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Zacks Research raised UWM from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $5.00 price target on UWM in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of UWM in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.50 price target on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of UWM from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of UWM from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, UWM has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.19.

UWM Profile

United Wholesale Mortgage (NYSE: UWMC) is a leading mortgage lender in the United States specializing in the wholesale channel. The company partners with independent mortgage brokers, community banks and credit unions to offer a full suite of residential mortgage products. Through its network of third-party originators, United Wholesale Mortgage underwrites, funds and closes loans, allowing its partners to focus on customer acquisition and service.

The company’s product offerings include conventional fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, U.S.