Ancora Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Ancora Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 18.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,040 shares of the company’s stock after selling 238 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $106,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VLTO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 146,234 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased 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 purchasing an additional 158,342 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 733,056 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in Veralto by 1.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Veralto by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,541,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $462,538,000 after buying an additional 401,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 104,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,486,173.60. The trade was 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 link. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 sold a total of 64,578 shares of company stock worth $6,192,048 in the last three months. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VLTO shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Northcoast Research initiated coverage on Veralto in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup reduced their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Veralto has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.09.

Veralto Price Performance

Veralto stock opened at $96.17 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.07. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $23.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. Veralto Co. has a 52-week low of $83.87 and a 52-week high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.57%.

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.