Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Trading Down 3.5% Following Analyst Downgrade

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)’s stock price dropped 3.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $142.00 to $131.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Vertiv traded as low as $107.12 and last traded at $107.35. Approximately 5,397,616 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 10,108,741 shares. The stock had previously closed at $111.24.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on VRT. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Melius Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Vertiv from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research note on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 target price for the company. Finally, Melius downgraded shares of Vertiv from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $125.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $138.57.

Insider Transactions at Vertiv

In related news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.07, for a total value of $11,353,152.33. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This trade represents a 81.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.46, for a total transaction of $4,373,094.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 19,448 shares in the company, valued at $2,751,114.08. This trade represents a 61.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682. 5.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRT. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Vertiv in the 4th quarter valued at $17,465,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 95,420 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,841,000 after buying an additional 8,982 shares during the period. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $585,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. United Capital Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Vertiv by 54.2% during the fourth quarter. United Capital Financial Advisors LLC now owns 16,434 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,867,000 after acquiring an additional 5,779 shares during the period. Finally, Kane Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Vertiv during the fourth quarter valued at about $808,000. Institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

Vertiv Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $123.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market cap of $41.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.92, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.15. Vertiv had a return on equity of 55.33% and a net margin of 7.72%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

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

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.