Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) in a research note published on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $150.00 target price on the stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Vertiv in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen upped their price objective 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 initiated coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $142.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Vertiv from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Vertiv from $125.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.92.

Vertiv Stock Performance

Shares of Vertiv stock opened at $129.35 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $48.55 billion, a PE ratio of 86.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a 50 day moving average of $123.90 and a 200-day moving average of $101.54. Vertiv has a 1-year low of $47.45 and a 1-year high of $145.67.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.52 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vertiv will post 2.69 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 paid a $0.0375 dividend. This is a positive change from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,562,549.57. This trade represents a 81.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,448 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold 171,527 shares of company stock valued at $23,105,682 over the last quarter. Insiders own 5.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Vertiv by 4.2% in 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Vertiv by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,951,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $592,433,000 after purchasing an additional 408,054 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Vertiv by 10,825.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,600,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $457,695,000 after buying an additional 4,558,306 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Vertiv by 271.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,915,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $389,548,000 after buying an additional 2,860,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in Vertiv during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $331,091,000. Institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

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.