Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $108.27.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on Veralto in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $118.00 target price for the company.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VLTO opened at $106.53 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $107.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.35 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.87. Veralto has a fifty-two week low of $73.91 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a return on equity of 52.85% and a net margin of 15.69%. Veralto’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Veralto will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total value of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. This trade represents a 6.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total value of $1,452,878.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 138,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,260,841.90. The trade was a 8.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,695 shares of company stock worth $1,615,017 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veralto

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in Veralto by 9.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,074,654,000 after purchasing an additional 860,608 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Veralto by 207.2% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,122,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,608,000 after acquiring an additional 757,389 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Veralto by 10.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,232,000 after purchasing an additional 558,393 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Veralto by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,864,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,511,000 after acquiring an additional 418,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Veralto in the second quarter valued at approximately $39,343,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Veralto

Veralto Corporation provides water analytics, water treatment, marking and coding, and packaging and color services worldwide. It operates through two segments, Water Quality (WQ) and Product Quality & Innovation (PQI). The WQ segment offers precision instrumentation and water treatment technologies to measure, analyze, and treat water in residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, research, and natural resource applications through the Hach, Trojan Technologies, and ChemTreat brands.