Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Shares Acquired by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 8.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,781 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $385,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of VLTO. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Veralto by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Veralto by 9.8% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 757,389 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Veralto by 10.5% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Veralto by 628.4% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 579,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,998,000 after acquiring an additional 499,735 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VLTO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.55.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,067,795.60. This trade represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of VLTO opened at $97.72 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.17 billion, a PE ratio of 29.26, a PEG ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 1.06. Veralto Co. has a 1 year low of $83.34 and a 1 year high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. On average, analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.17%.

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.