Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Vertiv Call Options (NYSE:VRT)

Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 35,466 call options on the company. This is an increase of 47% compared to the typical daily volume of 24,068 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Vertiv from $69.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Friday, April 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $96.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Vertiv from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Mizuho lifted their price target on Vertiv from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Vertiv from $65.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.56.

Vertiv Stock Performance

VRT traded up $8.65 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $87.82. The stock had a trading volume of 10,904,058 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,660,473. The stock has a market cap of $33.54 billion, a PE ratio of 78.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.59. Vertiv has a 1 year low of $12.22 and a 1 year high of $94.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.68.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. Vertiv had a return on equity of 39.46% and a net margin of 6.71%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Vertiv will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Vertiv Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vertiv news, CAO Scott Cripps sold 56,594 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.76, for a total value of $4,004,591.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Stephen Liang sold 306,196 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.24, for a total value of $21,507,207.04. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 51,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,641,311.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Scott Cripps sold 56,594 shares of Vertiv stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.76, for a total value of $4,004,591.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.62% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 182.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,236,496 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,757,198,000 after purchasing an additional 30,511,907 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Vertiv by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,855,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,530,018,000 after acquiring an additional 226,716 shares in the last quarter. Coatue Management LLC increased its stake in Vertiv by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Coatue Management LLC now owns 13,811,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $663,383,000 after acquiring an additional 2,249,353 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Vertiv by 10.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,817,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $402,429,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Vertiv during the fourth quarter worth about $185,339,000. 89.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.