Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) Hits New 12-Month High Following Analyst Upgrade

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTS)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Thursday after Piper Sandler raised their price target on the stock from $264.00 to $275.00. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Virtus Investment Partners traded as high as $263.39 and last traded at $256.48, with a volume of 17453 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $247.61.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on VRTS. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $170.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Virtus Investment Partners in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $289.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Virtus Investment Partners from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Institutional Trading of Virtus Investment Partners

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VRTS. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,188,513 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $285,232,000 after buying an additional 27,115 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 896,632 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $215,182,000 after buying an additional 48,669 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 286,767 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $54,593,000 after buying an additional 20,110 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 284,333 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $54,134,000 after buying an additional 7,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 183,117 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock worth $34,864,000 after buying an additional 8,542 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.52% of the company’s stock.

Virtus Investment Partners Trading Up 0.1 %

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $237.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $217.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.00 and a beta of 1.51.

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The closed-end fund reported $6.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.96 by $0.15. Virtus Investment Partners had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 18.83%. The company had revenue of $214.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.20 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.17 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. will post 26.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Virtus Investment Partners Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of $1.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th. This represents a $7.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. Virtus Investment Partners’s payout ratio is currently 42.91%.

About Virtus Investment Partners

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.