Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Shares Down 1% on Analyst Downgrade

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) was down 1% on Friday 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 $105.86 and last traded at $108.21. Approximately 2,279,076 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 10,165,570 shares. The stock had previously closed at $109.28.

VRT has been the subject of several other research reports. Mizuho raised their price target on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Melius Research reissued a “hold” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Vertiv from $115.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Vertiv from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $138.57.

Insider Activity at Vertiv

In related news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was 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 owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This trade represents a 81.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.46, for a total value 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. The trade was a 61.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682. 5.01% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,356,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,130,415,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244,780 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 68.6% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,754,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $880,971,000 after purchasing an additional 3,153,932 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 4.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,635,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $759,614,000 after purchasing an additional 308,704 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $688,260,000 after purchasing an additional 99,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in shares of Vertiv during the fourth quarter worth about $597,379,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

Vertiv Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $123.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.12. The company has a market cap of $40.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.12, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.7 EPS for the current year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $0.0375 dividend. This is a boost from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.15 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.14%. Vertiv’s payout ratio is 6.67%.

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.