Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Trading Up 2.5% – Here’s What Happened

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) traded up 2.5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $137.30 and last traded at $135.94. 4,912,411 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 4,839,224 shares. The stock had previously closed at $132.59.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VRT shares. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $155.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Vertiv from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Bank of America raised 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. Mizuho upped their price objective on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Vertiv from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $141.75.

Vertiv Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $51.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 90.63, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.63. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $126.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. Vertiv’s quarterly revenue was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.0375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.11%. This is an increase from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. Vertiv’s payout ratio is presently 6.67%.

Insider Activity at Vertiv

In related news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.07, for a total transaction of $11,353,152.33. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This trade represents a 81.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 sale, the director now owns 3,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,526.50. The trade was a 81.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 5.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Vertiv by 10,825.0% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,600,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $457,695,000 after purchasing an additional 4,558,306 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 271.0% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP grew its stake in shares of Vertiv by 215.6% in the third quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 1,864,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,273,746 shares in the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Vertiv during the third quarter worth about $110,517,000. Finally, Blue Whale Capital LLP acquired a new stake in Vertiv in the 3rd quarter worth about $93,481,000. 89.92% of the stock is currently 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.