Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC Acquires New Position in Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT)

Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC bought a new position in shares of Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 14,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,671,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its position in shares of Vertiv by 56.5% in the 4th quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 3,447 shares of the company’s stock worth $392,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244 shares during the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its stake in Vertiv by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 3,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $369,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co boosted its holdings in Vertiv by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 32,688 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,714,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Silverleafe Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vertiv during the 4th quarter worth about $4,219,000. Finally, Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. grew its position in shares of Vertiv by 160.2% during the 4th quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 41,555 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,721,000 after buying an additional 25,585 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

Vertiv Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE:VRT opened at $129.35 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $48.55 billion, a PE ratio of 86.23, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.63. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $124.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.73. 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 Holdings Co has a 52-week low of $47.45 and a 52-week high of $145.67.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Vertiv had a net margin of 7.72% and a return on equity of 55.33%. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Vertiv Holdings Co will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vertiv Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a dividend of $0.0375 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. This is a boost from Vertiv’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $0.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.12%. Vertiv’s payout ratio is 6.67%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on VRT shares. Barclays started coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $142.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Vertiv from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Vertiv from $124.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Vertiv from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Vertiv in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $155.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vertiv presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.92.

Insider Transactions at Vertiv

In other news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 86,619 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,551 shares in the company, valued at $2,562,549.57. The trade was a 81.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Anand Sanghi sold 30,914 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.46, for a total transaction of $4,373,094.44. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,751,114.08. The trade was a 61.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 171,527 shares of company stock worth $23,105,682 in the last three months. Insiders own 5.01% 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.