Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Has $3.16 Million Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 35.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,067 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,100 shares during the quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $3,164,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Veralto by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,347,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,989,011,000 after purchasing an additional 146,234 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,169,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $731,084,000 after buying an additional 158,342 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Veralto by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,601,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $670,781,000 after buying an additional 733,056 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its holdings in Veralto by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,764,889 shares of the company’s stock worth $485,304,000 after buying an additional 54,795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Veralto by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,541,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $462,538,000 after acquiring an additional 401,228 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Veralto from $110.00 to $102.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $111.10.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VLTO opened at $93.06 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.86, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $94.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $83.87 and a twelve month high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Veralto’s payout ratio is 13.17%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.05, for a total transaction of $57,259.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,011 shares in the company, valued at $971,567.55. This trade represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,471 shares of company stock valued at $2,234,030. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

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.