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

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) dropped 3.2% on Friday . The company traded as low as $147.51 and last traded at $148.62. Approximately 2,925,960 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 53% from the average daily volume of 6,182,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $153.49.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on VRT shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Monday, October 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on Vertiv in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $155.00 target price for the company. Mizuho boosted their price target on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Vertiv from $150.00 to $145.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.75.

Vertiv Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $54.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 97.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.63. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $128.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.38 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. Vertiv had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 55.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 is a boost from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.15 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.10%. Vertiv’s payout ratio is presently 6.67%.

Insider Activity at Vertiv

In other Vertiv news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.07, for a total value of $11,353,152.33. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This trade represents a 81.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.46, for a total transaction of $4,373,094.44. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,751,114.08. This represents a 61.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 171,527 shares of company stock valued at $23,105,682. 5.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertiv

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRT. Calamos Advisors LLC grew its position in Vertiv by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 10,465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Fourpath Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Vertiv by 9.9% during the 4th quarter. Fourpath Capital Management LLC now owns 1,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Vertiv by 68.6% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,754,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $880,971,000 after purchasing an additional 3,153,932 shares during the last quarter. S.A. Mason LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vertiv in the 4th quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its stake in Vertiv by 585.4% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 110,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,530,000 after purchasing an additional 94,195 shares during the last quarter. 89.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.