On Wednesday, Virtu Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VIRT) reported second-quarter results that outpaced analyst expectations, driven by a significant surge in trading income.
Shares rose 1.20% in pre-market trading following the announcement.
The financial services firm posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.53 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40. Revenue soared to $999.6 million, nearly double the consensus forecast of $517.93 million. Trading income, a core metric for Virtu, increased 53.1% year over year to $652.8 million, up from $426.4 million in the same period last year.
Adjusted Net Trading Income, which deducts direct costs tied to revenue, rose 47.4% to $567.7 million year over year. Net income for the quarter totaled $293.0 million, more than doubling from $128.1 million a year earlier.
The company continued its shareholder return strategy, declaring a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share and repurchasing $66.3 million in shares during the quarter. Since launching its buyback program in November 2020, Virtu has bought back roughly 53.8 million shares at a cost of about $1.42 billion.
Virtu’s Market Making segment, which uses capital on a principal basis to buy and sell securities, saw trading income rise to $647.3 million from $420.1 million in the prior year quarter. The Execution Services division, offering agency-based trading, recorded commissions and technology services revenue of $139.4 million, up from $116.8 million in Q2 2024.
The company’s Adjusted EBITDA margin, an indicator of operational efficiency, improved to 65.1% from 56.5% in the year-ago quarter.
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