Why Vertiv Stock Is Skyrocketing Today
Key Points
Vertiv missed Wall Street's sales and earnings expectations for the fourth quarter, but the company issued strong guidance.
Data-center demand is expected to continue powering strong sales and earnings growth in the current quarter.
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Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) stock is surging Wednesday despite the company reporting weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The digital infrastructure company's share price was up 22.4% as of 2:30 p.m. ET and had been up as much as 25.2% earlier in trading.
Vertiv published its Q4 results before the market opened this morning and reported sales and earnings for the period that came in below Wall Street's targets. Despite softer-than-anticipated results for the last quarter, the company issued strong forward guidance.
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Vertiv misses on sales and earnings in Q4
The average Wall Street analyst estimate had called for Vertiv to post earnings of $1.16 per share on sales of $2.89 billion in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the business delivered a per-share profit of $1.14 on revenue of $2.88 billion. Revenue was still up roughly 23% year over year, and adjusted earnings per share tripled compared to the prior-year period. Results were still quite strong despite missing the average Wall Street forecasts, and the company's forward guidance has investors feeling very bullish.
Vertiv stock is surging thanks to encouraging guidance
For the current quarter, Vertiv is targeting sales between $2.5 billion and $2.7 billion -- with the midpoint of that guidance range coming in ahead of the average analyst estimate's call for sales of $2.56 billion. Meanwhile, adjusted earnings per share are projected to be between $0.95 and $1.01 -- a range that looks substantially more bullish than the average analyst estimate's call for a per-share profit of $0.96. Vertiv is seeing strong sales and margin tailwinds connected to infrastructure demand for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, and these tailwinds look poised to continue powering performance this year.
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Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Vertiv. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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