Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Stock Price Down 1.4% – Should You Sell?

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)’s stock price fell 1.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $123.08 and last traded at $123.29. 4,988,689 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 38% from the average session volume of 8,103,466 shares. The stock had previously closed at $125.04.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Vertiv from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Vertiv from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Vertiv from $126.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Thursday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $142.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Vertiv currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.09.

Vertiv Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $120.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.16. The company has a market capitalization of $47.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.61.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.0375 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. This is an increase from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.12%. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.67%.

Insider Transactions at Vertiv

In related news, Director Jakki L. Haussler sold 15,347 shares of Vertiv 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 sale, the director now directly owns 3,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,526.50. The trade was a 81.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,448 shares in the company, valued at $2,751,114.08. The trade was a 61.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682 in the last quarter. 5.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VRT. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Vertiv by 4.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,635,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $759,614,000 after purchasing an additional 308,704 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,951,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $592,433,000 after buying an additional 408,054 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Vertiv by 10,825.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,600,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $457,695,000 after buying an additional 4,558,306 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Vertiv by 271.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,915,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $389,548,000 after buying an additional 2,860,181 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new position in Vertiv during the second quarter worth about $331,091,000. 89.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Vertiv

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.