Empire Life Investments Inc. Sells 4,252 Shares of Vontier Co. (NYSE:VNT)

Empire Life Investments Inc. trimmed its stake in Vontier Co. (NYSE:VNT) by 1.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 410,429 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,252 shares during the quarter. Empire Life Investments Inc.’s holdings in Vontier were worth $13,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VNT. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Vontier by 305.1% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 902,432 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,473,000 after buying an additional 679,651 shares in the last quarter. Stanley Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Vontier in the 2nd quarter valued at about $17,954,000. Eldred Rock Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vontier during the 2nd quarter worth about $14,613,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Vontier by 24.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,695,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,898,000 after purchasing an additional 329,191 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Vontier by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,565,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,011,000 after purchasing an additional 277,389 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VNT shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Vontier from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Vontier from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 19th. Barclays cut their price target on Vontier from $50.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Vontier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vontier presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.25.

Vontier Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Vontier stock opened at $36.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $33.95 and a 200-day moving average of $36.92. Vontier Co. has a 52-week low of $29.99 and a 52-week high of $45.62. The stock has a market cap of $5.68 billion, a PE ratio of 14.16, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.24.

Vontier (NYSE:VNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.04. Vontier had a net margin of 13.54% and a return on equity of 45.48%. The firm had revenue of $750.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $729.23 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Vontier Co. will post 2.88 EPS for the current year.

Vontier Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 5th were given a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 5th. Vontier’s payout ratio is currently 3.83%.

Vontier Company Profile

Vontier Corporation provides mobility ecosystem solutions worldwide. The company operates through Mobility Technologies, Repair Solutions, and Environmental and Fueling Solutions segments. The Mobility Technologies segment provides digitally equipment solutions for mobility ecosystem, such as point-of-sale and payment systems, workflow automation, telematics, data analytics, software platform, and integrated solutions for alternative fuel dispensing.