Westside Investment Management Inc. Decreases Holdings in Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)

Westside Investment Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) by 39.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,335 shares of the company’s stock after selling 865 shares during the quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Vertiv were worth $152,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Vertiv in the fourth quarter worth about $4,219,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 15.4% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,553,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,013,000 after purchasing an additional 340,639 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in Vertiv by 7.2% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 127,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,656,000 after purchasing an additional 8,579 shares during the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Vertiv during the third quarter valued at $8,403,000. Finally, Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd increased its position in Vertiv by 112.5% in the third quarter. Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd now owns 8,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $846,000 after buying an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. 89.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group started coverage on Vertiv in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $155.00 price target for the company. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $142.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Mizuho increased their target price on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Vertiv from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vertiv has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.75.

Insider Activity

In other Vertiv news, Director Jakki L. Haussler sold 15,347 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.38, for a total value of $2,108,370.86. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,526.50. The trade was a 81.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 19,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,751,114.08. This represents a 61.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682. 5.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Vertiv Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of VRT opened at $148.54 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Vertiv Holdings Co has a 1-year low of $52.40 and a 1-year high of $154.79. The company has a market capitalization of $55.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 99.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.63. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.34.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. Vertiv had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 55.33%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a $0.0375 dividend. This is a boost from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.10%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio 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.