Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Trading Down 3.2% – What’s Next?

Shares of Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) traded down 3.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $147.51 and last traded at $148.62. 2,925,960 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 6,182,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $153.49.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on VRT. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Vertiv in a report on Monday, October 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on Vertiv from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Vertiv from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Vertiv from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $141.75.

Vertiv Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $55.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 98.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $127.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $104.99.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. Vertiv had a return on equity of 55.33% and a net margin of 7.72%. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.0375 per share. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.10%. This is an increase from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vertiv

In other news, Director Jakki L. Haussler sold 15,347 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.38, for a total transaction of $2,108,370.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,425 shares in the company, valued at $470,526.50. This trade represents a 81.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.46, for a total value of $4,373,094.44. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,448 shares in the company, valued at $2,751,114.08. This represents a 61.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 171,527 shares of company stock valued at $23,105,682 over the last 90 days. 5.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertiv

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Spire Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 194.7% in the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 8,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $909,000 after purchasing an additional 5,287 shares in the last quarter. Bluesphere Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Vertiv by 52.8% in the fourth quarter. Bluesphere Advisors LLC now owns 4,291 shares of the company’s stock valued at $488,000 after acquiring an additional 1,482 shares in the last quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Vertiv during the 4th quarter worth $246,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its position in Vertiv by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 2,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 3,794 shares of the company’s stock valued at $431,000 after buying an additional 913 shares during the period. 89.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Vertiv Company Profile

Vertiv Holdings Co, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and services critical digital infrastructure technologies and life cycle services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.