Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $109.50.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total transaction of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. This represents a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VLTO. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Veralto in the third quarter worth $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Veralto by 692.3% in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 309 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its stake in Veralto by 11,100.0% during the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 336 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Price Performance

VLTO opened at $100.59 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.91. Veralto has a 52-week low of $73.91 and a 52-week high of $115.00.

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

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

Veralto Company Profile

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.