Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Trading Up 1% – Time to Buy?

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) rose 1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $133.49 and last traded at $130.25. Approximately 1,422,961 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 5,904,342 shares. The stock had previously closed at $128.95.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $155.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Monday, October 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.92.

Vertiv Stock Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of $48.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.95, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.63. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $125.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $102.74.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Vertiv had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 55.33%. The business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.69 EPS for the current 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 paid a $0.0375 dividend. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.12%. This is a boost 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 is presently 6.67%.

Insider Activity at Vertiv

In other Vertiv news, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of the company’s 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Jakki L. Haussler sold 15,347 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were 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 owns 3,425 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,526.50. This trade represents a 81.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 171,527 shares of company stock valued at $23,105,682. Insiders own 5.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,635,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $759,614,000 after acquiring an additional 308,704 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,951,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $592,433,000 after acquiring an additional 408,054 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 10,825.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,600,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $457,695,000 after acquiring an additional 4,558,306 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,860,181 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in shares of Vertiv during the 2nd quarter worth about $331,091,000. 89.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.