Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Trading Up 1.8% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) shot up 1.8% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $112.67 and last traded at $108.48. 7,202,355 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 9,813,244 shares. The stock had previously closed at $106.55.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VRT. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Vertiv from $126.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Melius Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Tuesday. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Vertiv from $115.00 to $141.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Vertiv from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $139.36.

Vertiv Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $41.32 billion, a PE ratio of 73.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.63. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $127.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.72.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.0375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a positive change from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.14%. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio is 6.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were 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 directly owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This represents a 81.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Jan Van Dokkum sold 38,647 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.39, for a total value of $5,271,064.33. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,409,750. This trade represents a 60.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682. Company insiders own 5.01% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertiv

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 68.6% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,754,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $880,971,000 after acquiring an additional 3,153,932 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 4.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,635,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $759,614,000 after acquiring an additional 308,704 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 7.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,951,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $592,433,000 after acquiring an additional 408,054 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 271.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,915,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $389,548,000 after acquiring an additional 2,860,181 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 1.1% in the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 3,611,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $359,315,000 after acquiring an additional 40,696 shares during the period. 89.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.