Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Stock Price Up 4.9% After Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) shares rose 4.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The company traded as high as $90.46 and last traded at $88.72. Approximately 6,834,540 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 7,879,651 shares. The stock had previously closed at $84.57.

The company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. Vertiv had a return on equity of 42.43% and a net margin of 5.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.24 EPS.

Vertiv Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a dividend of $0.025 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.11%. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRT. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Vertiv from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Vertiv from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup upped their price target on Vertiv from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America upped their price target on Vertiv from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on Vertiv from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.11.

Insider Activity at Vertiv

In other Vertiv news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 306,196 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.24, for a total transaction of $21,507,207.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,841 shares in the company, valued at $3,641,311.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Vertiv news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 306,196 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.24, for a total transaction of $21,507,207.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 51,841 shares in the company, valued at $3,641,311.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Scott Cripps sold 56,594 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.76, for a total value of $4,004,591.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRT. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 90.5% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,231 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,000 after purchasing an additional 2,010 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 30.0% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares during the last quarter. Cannon Global Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Vertiv in the third quarter valued at about $542,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC bought a new position in Vertiv in the third quarter valued at about $2,241,000. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Vertiv by 5.6% in the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 48,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,789,000 after acquiring an additional 2,548 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

Vertiv Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $76.51 and a 200-day moving average of $57.47. The firm has a market cap of $35.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.89, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45.

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.