Comparing Virtus Investment Partners (VRTS) and Its Peers

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) is one of 1,746 public companies in the “Capital Markets” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Virtus Investment Partners to similar companies based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Virtus Investment Partners and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Virtus Investment Partners	$800.54 million	$121.75 million	7.86
Virtus Investment Partners Competitors	$3.12 billion	$397.40 million	15.75

Virtus Investment Partners’ competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Virtus Investment Partners. Virtus Investment Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk and Volatility

Virtus Investment Partners has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Virtus Investment Partners’ competitors have a beta of 0.79, meaning that their average share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.5% of Virtus Investment Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.6% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are owned by institutional investors. 6.4% of Virtus Investment Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.1% of shares of all “Capital Markets” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Virtus Investment Partners and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Virtus Investment Partners	13.42%	21.56%	5.27%
Virtus Investment Partners Competitors	314.79%	9.90%	3.46%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Virtus Investment Partners and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Virtus Investment Partners	3	1	1	0	1.60
Virtus Investment Partners Competitors	5605	20212	22563	650	2.37

Virtus Investment Partners presently has a consensus target price of $133.75, suggesting a potential upside of 5.32%. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies have a potential upside of 23.19%. Given Virtus Investment Partners’ competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Virtus Investment Partners has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

Virtus Investment Partners pays an annual dividend of $9.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. Virtus Investment Partners pays out 60.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Capital Markets” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.2% and pay out 29.2% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Virtus Investment Partners competitors beat Virtus Investment Partners on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

About Virtus Investment Partners

Virtus Investment Partners is an asset management company that offers investment products and services to individual investors, financial advisers, and institutions. It uses a multi-manager approach, bringing together specialized investment managers with distinct strategies and areas of expertise. Its offerings include mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, separately managed accounts, and alternative investment strategies. The company distributes these products primarily through financial intermediaries and also works with institutional clients.