Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $112.55.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VLTO shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total value of $1,045,044.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,486,173.60. This trade represents a 9.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total value of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at $2,067,795.60. This represents a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,467 shares of company stock valued at $1,150,366 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veralto

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the third quarter worth $25,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT grew its stake in shares of Veralto by 2,100.0% in the fourth quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veralto Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE VLTO opened at $99.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.71 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $101.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.70. Veralto has a fifty-two week low of $85.70 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Veralto will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.11 dividend. 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. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.