Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on Vertiv (NYSE:VRT)

Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE:VRT) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 44,956 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 27% compared to the average volume of 35,270 put options.

Institutional Trading of Vertiv

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VRT. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Vertiv by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,694,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,408,661,000 after buying an additional 235,577 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Vertiv by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,065,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,141,723,000 after buying an additional 143,821 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Vertiv by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,974,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $967,881,000 after buying an additional 121,618 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Vertiv during the fourth quarter worth about $808,701,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Vertiv by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,811,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $455,531,000 after acquiring an additional 97,141 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Vertiv from $418.00 to $337.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Vertiv in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Vertiv from $347.00 to $387.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Vertiv from $360.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $320.00 price objective on Vertiv in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $348.54.

Vertiv Trading Up 2.1%

NYSE VRT opened at $287.81 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $297.84 and its 200-day moving average is $283.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.03. Vertiv has a one year low of $118.70 and a one year high of $379.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.12, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 2.06.

Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.09. Vertiv had a net margin of 15.09% and a return on equity of 50.47%. The business had revenue of $3.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.95 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Vertiv has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.770-1.830 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 6.650-6.750 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Vertiv will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Vertiv Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Vertiv’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.66%.

Vertiv Company Profile

Vertiv is a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial environments. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the company designs, manufactures and services equipment and software that support power availability, thermal management and IT infrastructure management for a broad set of end markets, including hyperscale and enterprise data centers, colocation providers, telecom operators and industrial customers.

The company’s product portfolio includes uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), power distribution units (PDUs), battery and DC power systems, precision cooling and thermal management equipment, racks and enclosures, and integrated modular infrastructure.