Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Shares Down 3.9% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) shares fell by 3.9%, trading as low as $136.00 and closing at $139.91, with a significant drop in trading volume compared to average levels.
• Analysts have recently increased price targets for Vertiv, with Roth Capital raising it to $157.00 and UBS setting a target of $173.00, with an overall consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."
• The company declared a dividend increase to $0.0375 per share, showing a strong dividend yield of 14.0%, up from a previous payout of $0.01.

Shares of Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT - Get Free Report) traded down 3.9% on Friday . The company traded as low as $136.00 and last traded at $139.91. 4,338,931 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average session volume of 9,500,179 shares. The stock had previously closed at $145.60.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Roth Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $100.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. KGI Securities initiated coverage on shares of Vertiv in a report on Thursday, April 24th. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Vertiv in a research note on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Vertiv from $135.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Melius upgraded Vertiv from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $165.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vertiv presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $144.06.

Vertiv Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.72 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a market capitalization of $53.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.75, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.75. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $121.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $104.78.

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

Vertiv Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertiv news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 43,683 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 9,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,292.33. This represents a 82.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Karsten Winther sold 5,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.33, for a total value of $518,815.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 18,847 shares in the company, valued at $1,777,837.51. This trade represents a 22.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VRT. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new stake in Vertiv in the 4th quarter worth approximately $597,379,000. Amundi raised its holdings in Vertiv by 96.8% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 6,951,773 shares of the company's stock worth $469,490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,420,144 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Vertiv by 985.3% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,301,700 shares of the company's stock worth $166,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,089,612 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Vertiv by 100.1% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,246,769 shares of the company's stock worth $415,132,000 after purchasing an additional 1,624,456 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Vertiv by 3.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,715,159 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,723,034,000 after purchasing an additional 1,359,070 shares in the last quarter. 89.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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