Czech National Bank Grows Stock Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 53,622 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,284 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Veralto were worth $5,461,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Veralto by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 70,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,877,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank lifted its stake in Veralto by 49.6% during the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 3,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $395,000 after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co acquired a new position in Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,528,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Veralto by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VLTO. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was 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 $1,071,601.83. This represents a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of VLTO opened at $102.41 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The firm has a market cap of $25.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.06. Veralto Co. has a 52 week low of $73.91 and a 52 week high of $115.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $104.14 and a 200-day moving average of $105.74.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released 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 firm had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 52.85%. Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s 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.