Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have rated Vertiv Holdings Co. as a "Moderate Buy", with a consensus from 21 brokerages including 3 hold ratings, 17 buy ratings, and 1 strong buy rating.
• The average one-year price target for Vertiv is $137.89, indicating potential for growth based on recent performance.
• Vertiv recently increased its dividend to $0.0375, marking a yield of 0.14%, which showcases the company's commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-two ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eighteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $144.06.

Several brokerages recently commented on VRT. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Vertiv from $130.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Barclays set a $128.00 price target on Vertiv and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Melius Research raised Vertiv from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $134.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Melius raised Vertiv from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $165.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Vertiv from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertiv news, insider Karsten Winther sold 5,500 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total transaction of $518,815.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 18,847 shares in the company, valued at $1,777,837.51. The trade was a 22.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Stephen Liang sold 43,683 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.83, for a total transaction of $5,059,801.89. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 9,551 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,292.33. This represents a 82.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Vertiv by 3.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,715,159 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,723,034,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359,070 shares during the period. Amundi grew its position in Vertiv by 96.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 6,951,773 shares of the company's stock valued at $469,490,000 after acquiring an additional 3,420,144 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Vertiv by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,050,965 shares of the company's stock valued at $688,260,000 after acquiring an additional 99,181 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in Vertiv in the fourth quarter valued at $597,379,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Vertiv by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,905,807 shares of the company's stock valued at $557,349,000 after acquiring an additional 990,361 shares during the period. 89.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Vertiv Price Performance

NYSE:VRT traded down $3.94 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $141.66. 9,578,546 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,532,384. Vertiv has a one year low of $53.60 and a one year high of $155.84. The company has a market capitalization of $53.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.75. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $121.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.12. Vertiv had a return on equity of 56.24% and a net margin of 8.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Vertiv will post 3.59 EPS for the current year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were paid a dividend of $0.0375 per share. This is an increase from Vertiv's previous dividend of $0.01. This represents a yield of 14.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Vertiv's dividend payout ratio is presently 7.18%.

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.