Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume After Strong Earnings

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) shares saw an uptick in trading volume on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. 3,810,782 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 55% from the previous session’s volume of 8,435,340 shares.The stock last traded at $87.18 and had previously closed at $91.00.

The company reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.10. Vertiv had a return on equity of 49.53% and a net margin of 6.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Vertiv Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th were issued a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.13%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 17th. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio is 9.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Vertiv from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Vertiv from $116.00 to $104.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Vertiv from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Citigroup increased their target price on Vertiv from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Vertiv from $56.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertiv presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vertiv news, Director Doherty Philip O’ sold 2,511,295 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.64, for a total value of $235,157,663.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,324,181 shares in the company, valued at $873,116,308.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Vertiv news, Director Doherty Philip O’ sold 2,511,295 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.64, for a total value of $235,157,663.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,324,181 shares in the company, valued at $873,116,308.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Yibin Edward Cui sold 668 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.39, for a total value of $63,052.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,836,074.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 3,674,034 shares of company stock worth $354,931,478. 5.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertiv

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 296.0% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 13,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $634,000 after acquiring an additional 9,870 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in Vertiv by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 14,984 shares of the company’s stock worth $720,000 after buying an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in Vertiv by 58.8% during the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 547,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,312,000 after buying an additional 202,766 shares in the last quarter. WT Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in Vertiv during the fourth quarter worth $24,486,000. Finally, Williamson Legacy Group LLC bought a new stake in Vertiv during the fourth quarter worth $1,645,000. Institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

Vertiv Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $92.30 and a 200-day moving average of $79.56. The firm has a market cap of $28.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

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.