Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Price Target Lowered to $145.00 at Evercore ISI

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) had its price target lowered by Evercore ISI from $150.00 to $145.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

VRT has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Vertiv in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Vertiv in a research note on Monday, January 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $150.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho raised their price target on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Vertiv from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Vertiv from $121.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $141.75.

Vertiv Stock Performance

NYSE:VRT opened at $135.94 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $126.07 and its 200 day moving average is $103.61. Vertiv has a fifty-two week low of $49.67 and a fifty-two week high of $145.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.02 billion, a PE ratio of 90.63, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.38.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Vertiv had a return on equity of 55.33% and a net margin of 7.72%. The business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vertiv will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.0375 per share. This is a boost from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.11%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.67%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. The trade was a 81.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jan Van Dokkum sold 38,647 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.39, for a total value of $5,271,064.33. Following the sale, the director now owns 25,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,409,750. This trade represents a 60.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682 over the last three months. 5.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vertiv in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,219,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Vertiv by 15.4% during the second 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 last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. raised its holdings in Vertiv by 7.2% during the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 127,210 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,656,000 after purchasing an additional 8,579 shares during the last quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Vertiv during the third quarter worth $8,403,000. Finally, Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd raised its holdings in Vertiv by 112.5% during the third quarter. Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd now owns 8,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $846,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

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.