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VIRT, Virtu Financial
Virtu serve an important role in maintaining and improving the overall health and efficiency of the global capital markets by providing market participants with an efficient means to transfer risk and analyze the quality of execution.
We are a leading financial firm that leverages cutting edge technology to deliver liquidity to the global markets and innovative, transparent trading solutions to our clients.
Leveraging our global market structure expertise and scaled, multi-asset infrastructure, we provide our clients a robust product suite including offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is Commissions, net (78%), Workflow technology (16%) and Analytics (6%).
- What moves the needle
- Assets under management and the fee rate on them. What decides it: net flows in or out, the market's move on the assets already there (the firm rises and falls with the indices it invests in), the drift toward cheaper passive products, and the operating leverage on a largely fixed cost base. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Operating margin has been modest for a fee business (median 14%). It earns this on little capital, so return on equity has run near 22%, the leverage of a model that needs almost no plant to grow. A high return that does not fade can mark a moat, but whether the assets stay (net flows, not last year's market) is what the flow disclosures and the 10-K settle, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Commissions, net is 78% of revenue, with Workflow technology the other meaningful line at 16%.
- Commissions, net78%$480M
- Workflow technology16%$99M
- Analytics6%$37M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
Revenue up 19.0% year over year; operating income up 1.6%
figures computed from the filing's XBRL
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMJun 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $702M | $1.0B | $1.9B | $1.5B | $3.2B | $2.8B | $2.4B | $2.3B | $2.9B | $3.6B | $4.1B | RevenueRevenue |
| 7.7% | 9.5% | 19.5% | −4.7% | 28.1% | 23.0% | 14.9% | 8.9% | 13.4% | 17.9% | 18.8% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| 4.7% | 0.3% | 15.4% | −3.9% | 20.0% | 17.0% | 11.2% | 6.2% | 9.6% | 12.9% | 13.5% | Net marginNet mgn |
| $180M | $113M | $696M | ($116M) | $1.4B | $997M | $557M | $325M | $645M | $1.1B | — | Pretax incomePretax |
| $33M | $3M | $289M | ($59M) | $649M | $477M | $265M | $142M | $276M | $468M | $551M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 12% | — | 11% | — | 19% | 17% | 16% | 19% | 17% | 17% | 28% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $228M | $272M | $688M | $159M | $1.0B | $1.1B | $680M | $466M | $587M | $496M | $538M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| ($59M) | ($838M) | $329M | ($900M) | ($3M) | ($87M) | ($30M) | ($94M) | ($62M) | ($41M) | — | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| ($161M) | $890M | ($835M) | $770M | ($840M) | ($958M) | ($736M) | ($585M) | ($470M) | ($281M) | — | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| ($1M) | $9M | ($5M) | ($1M) | $15M | ($12M) | ($24M) | $5M | ($9M) | $16M | — | Exchange-rate effectFX |
| $18M | $351M | $203M | $37M | $234M | $114M | ($83M) | ($183M) | $59M | $212M | — | Change in cashΔ cash |
| 23% | 0% | 28% | -6% | 44% | 31% | 20% | 12% | 22% | 30% | 29% | Return on equityROE |
| −3% | −7% | 18% | −18% | 36% | — | — | — | — | — | 23% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $3.7B | $7.3B | $7.4B | $9.6B | $10.0B | $10.3B | $10.6B | $14.5B | $15.4B | $20.2B | $27.5B | Total assetsAssets |
| $181M | $533M | $730M | $732M | $890M | $1.1B | $982M | $820M | $873M | $1.1B | $1.1B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $3.2B | $6.2B | $5.9B | $8.4B | $8.1B | $8.5B | $8.9B | $13.1B | $13.9B | $18.2B | — | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $389M | $321M | $443M | $298M | $386M | $314M | $310M | $203M | $233M | $391M | — | Noncontrolling interestsNCI |
| $146M | $831M | $1.1B | $931M | $1.5B | $1.5B | $1.3B | $1.2B | $1.3B | $1.6B | $1.9B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 38.5M | 62.6M | 102M | 114M | 122M | 118M | 104M | 94.1M | 87.8M | 85.3M | 86.9M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $18.22 | $16.43 | $18.40 | $13.32 | $26.48 | $23.74 | $22.65 | $24.38 | $32.76 | $42.57 | $46.98 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $0.86 | $0.05 | $2.84 | $-0.51 | $5.31 | $4.03 | $2.54 | $1.51 | $3.15 | $5.49 | $6.34 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $5.91 | $4.34 | $6.74 | $1.40 | $8.44 | $9.69 | $6.51 | $4.96 | $6.68 | $5.81 | $6.19 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $0.98 | $1.02 | $0.98 | $0.99 | $0.98 | — | — | — | — | — | $1.39 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $3.78 | $13.27 | $10.30 | $8.18 | $12.00 | $13.08 | $12.85 | $12.78 | $14.28 | $18.55 | $21.50 | Book value / shareBVPS |
The diluted share count moved ×1.62 into 2017 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×1.63 into 2018 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +9.9%/yr | +10.0%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | −0.2%/yr | −7.2%/yr |
| EPS | +22.9%/yr | +0.7%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +0.1%/yr (4-yr) | +0.1%/yr (4-yr) |
| Capital spending / share | −1.6%/yr | +2.5%/yr |
| Book value / share | +19.3%/yr | +9.1%/yr |
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Operating margin 17.9%Modest fee marginOperating income $650M ÷ revenue $3.6BIndustry peers: median 10%
What this means
The heart of a asset manager: how much of each fee dollar survives the cost of running the business. Fees ride on assets under management, so the swing factors are net flows in or out and the market's move on the assets already there; the cost base is largely fixed, which lifts margins in a bull market and squeezes them in a bear one. A high margin held for years, through a market it does not control, is the operational mark of a real franchise.
- Net margin 12.9%SolidNet income $468M ÷ revenue $3.6B
What this means
What reaches the owner after tax and interest. For a capital-light fee business this should be a wide share of revenue; when it is thin despite a high operating margin, debt taken on for acquisitions is usually the reason, so read it next to the balance sheet.
- Return on equity 30%Very high (≥25%)Net income $468M ÷ equity $1.6BIndustry peers: median 9%
What this means
Because the business ties up little capital, a healthy fee stream throws off a high return on the equity behind it. Read it with the buyback record: returning capital lifts this ratio honestly, but heavy debt taken to do so can flatter it.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $10.1M | $14.9M | $1.1B |
| 2022 | $12.1M | $8.6M | $680M |
| 2023 | $8.3M | $9.1M | $466M |
| 2024 | $9.9M | $15.2M | $587M |
| 2025 | $16.7M | $16.2M | $496M |
| 2025 | $27.3M | $30.5M | $496M |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership46.7%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- CEO pay ratio54:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
- Stock-based compensation$100M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 2.8% of revenue, equal to 15.4% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Stock compensation as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Capital Markets & Asset Management
The same industry, side by side on fee margins. Each column names the period it is read over; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Op. marginmedian over the record | Net marginmedian over the record | ROEmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBKRInteractive Brokers Group Inc. | $6.2B | 41.0% | 10.1% | 13% |
| HOODRobinhood Markets Inc. | $4.5B | -28.6% | -29.0% | -8% |
| VIRTVirtu Financial | $3.6B | 14.2% | 10.4% | 22% |
| SEICSEI Investments Company | $2.3B | 26.6% | 27.0% | 27% |
| PIPRPiper Sandler | $1.9B | 10.0% | 7.6% | 9% |
| OPYOppenheimer Holdings Inc. | $1.6B | 7.3% | 4.0% | 7% |
| MIAXMiami International Holdings Inc. | $1.4B | -0.2% | -2.0% | -8% |
| FUTUFutu Holdings Limited | $1.3B | 81.3% | 71.8% | 16% |
| Group median | — | 12.1% | 8.9% | 11% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what Virtu Financial has delivered.
Through the cycle, Virtu Financial earns about $1.0B on its 27.6% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 13.6% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
—
9.0% = the 4.68% 10-year Treasury (Jul 30, 2026) + 4.32 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.68%, as of Jul 30, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Free cash flow $521M on 87M shares outstanding (a weighted basic average, the only count this filer tags); net debt $957M. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($37M) runs well above depreciation ($20M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about $535M, the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← VIR its page in the Manual VISN →
Industry order: ← VINP the Capital Markets & Asset Management chapter VRTS →