Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Stock Price Up 2.9% – Should You Buy?

Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT)’s stock price rose 2.9% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $129.43 and last traded at $127.92. Approximately 4,003,595 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 53% from the average daily volume of 8,540,647 shares. The stock had previously closed at $124.33.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Vertiv from $98.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Vertiv from $100.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Vertiv from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 21st. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 target price (up from $100.00) on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Roth Mkm began coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.69.

Vertiv Price Performance

The business’s 50 day moving average price is $109.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $103.41. The stock has a market cap of $48.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.75. 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) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Vertiv had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 56.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vertiv Holdings Co. will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.0375 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.14%. This is an increase from Vertiv’s previous dividend of $0.01. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Karsten Winther sold 5,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 18,847 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Stephen Liang sold 43,683 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.83, for a total transaction of $5,059,801.89. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 9,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,292.33. The trade was a 82.06% 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 company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 96.8% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 6,951,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $469,490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,420,144 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,050,965 shares of the company’s stock valued at $688,260,000 after purchasing an additional 99,181 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in Vertiv during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $597,379,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Vertiv by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,905,807 shares of the company’s stock valued at $557,349,000 after buying an additional 990,361 shares during the last quarter. 89.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.