Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Has $436,000 Stock Position in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) by 3.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 587 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Virtu Financial were worth $436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Old West Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 4.3% in the second quarter. Old West Investment Management LLC now owns 681,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,298,000 after acquiring an additional 28,199 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Virtu Financial in the second quarter worth approximately $1,965,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 3.5% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,643,686 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,801,000 after acquiring an additional 124,563 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Virtu Financial by 2.4% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 102,107 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 2,409 shares during the period. Finally, Choreo LLC acquired a new position in shares of Virtu Financial in the second quarter worth approximately $418,000. 45.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VIRT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Virtu Financial from $18.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 1st. Bank of America boosted their price target on Virtu Financial from $25.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Virtu Financial from $25.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Virtu Financial from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.36.

Virtu Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VIRT opened at $30.96 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $16.02 and a twelve month high of $32.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $29.95 and its 200-day moving average is $24.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.65, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 0.38.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.23. Virtu Financial had a return on equity of 22.74% and a net margin of 7.59%. The business had revenue of $385.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $331.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.29 earnings per share. Virtu Financial’s revenue was up 38.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 2.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Virtu Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, September 1st were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.10%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Virginia Gambale sold 5,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.30, for a total transaction of $147,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 24,122 shares in the company, valued at $658,530.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 46.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Virtu Financial Profile

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.