Vertiv, a provider of digital infrastructure technology for data centers and communication networks, on Wednesday beat Wall Street's targets for the third quarter but provided mixed guidance for the current period. VRT stock fell on the news.
The Westerville, Ohio-based company earned an adjusted 76 cents a share on sales of $2.07 billion in the September quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Vertiv earnings of 69 cents a share on sales of $1.98 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Vertiv earnings rose 46% while sales increased 19%.
For the current quarter, Vertiv expects to earn an adjusted 82 cents a share on sales of $2.14 billion. That's based on the midpoint of its guidance. However, Wall Street was modeling fourth-quarter earnings of 75 cents a share on sales of $2.16 billion. In Q4 last year, Vertiv earned 56 cents a share on sales of $1.87 billion.
Vertiv provides infrastructure technology for data centers, including battery energy storage systems, thermal management solutions and data center racks. It has partnered with AI chipmakers such as Nvidia on designing artificial intelligence data centers.
VRT Stock Is On Two IBD Lists
"There are clear indications of an acceleration in AI development that is truly encouraging, and which is driving demand across our entire AI-enabling portfolio of power, thermal, IT systems, infrastructure solutions and services," Chief Executive Giordano Albertazzi said in a news release.
He added, "We are very encouraged by the acceleration of liquid cooling revenue, which is a visible contributor to our third-quarter results, despite a yet immature market."
Vertiv's orders grew 17% in the third quarter and came in at the high end of company guidance, but the growth rate was below investor expectations, JPMorgan analyst Stephen Tusa said in a client note.
"Stock will be down from recent highs as debate re-ignites around orders trajectory but Street will be moving up materially," Tusa said. He rates VRT stock as overweight, or buy, with a price target of 124.
On the stock market today, VRT stock seesawed. It fell as much as 7.1% at the market open and later was up as much as 3.5% on the day. VRT stock ended the regular session down 3.7% to 108.36.
VRT stock is on two IBD lists: IBD 50 and Leaderboard.
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