Virtu Financial, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 (NASDAQ:VIRT)

Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 1st will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Saturday, June 15th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st.

Virtu Financial has a payout ratio of 40.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Virtu Financial to earn $2.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Virtu Financial Stock Performance

VIRT stock opened at $22.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.66, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.82. Virtu Financial has a one year low of $16.02 and a one year high of $22.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.46 and a current ratio of 0.46.

Virtu Financial (NASDAQ:VIRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.13). Virtu Financial had a net margin of 6.04% and a return on equity of 17.14%. The firm had revenue of $535.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $272.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Virtu Financial will post 1.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Douglas A. Cifu bought 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $16.21 per share, with a total value of $810,500.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 584,132 shares in the company, valued at $9,468,779.72. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 44.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $21.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Virtu Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.33.

Virtu Financial Company 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.