Virtus Investment Partners (VRTS)

The company offers strategies across a range of asset classes and investment styles, including equity, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative approaches. Its products are distributed through vehicles such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, separately managed accounts and institutional mandates. This structure allows Virtus to present investors with differentiated strategies while giving its managers room to maintain their own investment processes, brands and portfolio disciplines.

Virtus supports its managers with sales, marketing, compliance, technology, product development and administrative infrastructure. In return, the company earns investment management and related fees, which are generally influenced by assets under management, fund flows and market performance. That makes its results sensitive to investor demand, financial market conditions and the relative performance of its investment strategies.

The company’s distinguishing feature is its boutique-style operating model. Rather than relying on a single house investment view, Virtus positions itself as a platform for specialist managers that can serve different investor objectives. For shareholders, the business represents exposure to the economics of active asset management, wealth distribution and institutional investment outsourcing.