Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Short Interest Up 28.3% in December

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,220,000 shares, a growth of 28.3% from the December 15th total of 3,290,000 shares. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,320,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Insider Activity at Veralto

In related news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. This trade represents a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VLTO. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 9.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,074,654,000 after acquiring an additional 860,608 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Veralto by 10.5% during 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. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,009,170 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,329,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $372,462,000 after acquiring an additional 162,347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Veralto by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,885,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,827,000 after acquiring an additional 11,430 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on VLTO. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Six equities 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, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.27.

Veralto Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE VLTO traded down $1.08 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $102.98. 1,372,680 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,140,188. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.13. Veralto has a one year low of $75.03 and a one year high of $115.00. The company’s 50-day moving average is $104.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.76. The company has a market capitalization of $25.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 52.85%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Veralto will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

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.