Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on VRTS. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Virtus Investment Partners from $208.00 to $217.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Virtus Investment Partners in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $206.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Virtus Investment Partners presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.50.

Virtus Investment Partners Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Virtus Investment Partners stock opened at $244.03 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $219.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $219.53. Virtus Investment Partners has a 12-month low of $190.42 and a 12-month high of $263.39. The company has a current ratio of 11.86, a quick ratio of 11.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.83 and a beta of 1.45.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Virtus Investment Partners

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 328,067 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $74,092,000 after purchasing an additional 8,393 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 255,536 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $53,522,000 after purchasing an additional 16,586 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 151,328 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $31,702,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 113,892 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $23,670,000 after purchasing an additional 4,359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in shares of Virtus Investment Partners by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 110,429 shares of the closed-end fund’s stock valued at $23,129,000 after purchasing an additional 12,193 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.52% of the company’s stock.

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.