Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Shares Up 4% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) shot up 4% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $123.36 and last traded at $122.98. 1,661,571 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 47% from the average session volume of 3,110,364 shares. The stock had previously closed at $118.30.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Vertiv from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Mizuho raised their target price on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Vertiv from $115.00 to $141.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Monday, October 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.09.

Vertiv Trading Up 6.2 %

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market cap of $47.17 billion, a PE ratio of 83.78, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.61.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. Vertiv had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 55.33%. 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 previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.0375 per share. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 (DPR) is currently 6.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertiv news, 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 directly owns 19,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,751,114.08. The trade was a 61.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Jakki L. Haussler sold 15,347 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.38, for a total value of $2,108,370.86. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,526.50. This represents a 81.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 171,527 shares of company stock valued at $23,105,682 over the last quarter. 5.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Vertiv by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 31,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,789 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Vertiv by 36.3% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 12,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,105,000 after purchasing an additional 3,401 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Vertiv by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 57,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,005,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in Vertiv by 24.1% during the 2nd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 36,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,191,000 after purchasing an additional 7,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Candriam S.C.A. lifted its holdings in Vertiv by 995.0% in the 2nd quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 269,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,347,000 after buying an additional 245,077 shares during the period. 89.92% of the stock is 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.