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

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)’s share price shot up 4.9% during trading on Thursday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The company traded as high as $90.46 and last traded at $88.72. 6,834,540 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 13% from the average session volume of 7,879,651 shares. The stock had previously closed at $84.57.

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

Vertiv Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Vertiv from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Vertiv from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Vertiv from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho increased their price objective on Vertiv from $56.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Vertiv from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vertiv currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.11.

Insider Activity at Vertiv

In related news, CAO Scott Cripps sold 56,594 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.76, for a total transaction of $4,004,591.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,641,311.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Scott Cripps sold 56,594 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were 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 company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vertiv

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 182.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,236,496 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,757,198,000 after acquiring an additional 30,511,907 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Vertiv in the fourth quarter worth $185,339,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 12.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,628,757 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,176,590,000 after acquiring an additional 3,417,710 shares during the period. Coatue Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Coatue Management LLC now owns 13,811,848 shares of the company’s stock worth $663,383,000 after acquiring an additional 2,249,353 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 1,032.5% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 2,258,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,031,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,431 shares during the period. 89.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Vertiv Stock Up 3.5 %

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

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.