Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) shares gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $123.25, but opened at $111.08. Vertiv shares last traded at $112.52, with a volume of 5,840,777 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America upped 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. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Vertiv from $115.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $142.00 price target for the company. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Vertiv from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $139.36.

Vertiv Stock Down 6.7 %

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 capitalization of $43.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.92, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $124.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.09.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 55.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.0375 per share. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.13%. This is an increase from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio is 6.67%.

Insider Transactions at Vertiv

In related news, Director Jan Van Dokkum sold 38,647 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.39, for a total value of $5,271,064.33. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 25,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,409,750. This trade represents a 60.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.07, for a total transaction of $11,353,152.33. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This represents a 81.59 % 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.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VRT. Hartree Partners LP acquired a new position in Vertiv during the 4th quarter valued at about $880,000. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in Vertiv by 95.3% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,167,536 shares of the company’s stock valued at $135,621,000 after buying an additional 569,722 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Vertiv by 136.9% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,336,862 shares of the company’s stock valued at $379,101,000 after buying an additional 1,928,275 shares during the period. Allianz SE acquired a new position in shares of Vertiv in the 4th quarter worth approximately $624,000. Finally, Allstate Corp acquired a new position in shares of Vertiv in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,186,000. 89.92% of the stock is currently owned by 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.