Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. Purchases New Shares in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. acquired a new position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VLTO. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Veralto in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Albion Financial Group UT lifted its position 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 valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Veralto during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VLTO. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Northcoast Research assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veralto has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.09.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In related news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.67, for a total transaction of $2,968,308.63. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,633,042.78. This represents a 64.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,418 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $989,710.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,090,805. This trade represents a 8.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,073 shares of company stock valued at $6,442,018. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $101.67 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The business has a 50-day moving average of $94.40 and a 200 day moving average of $99.64. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $83.87 and a 12 month high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.57%.

Veralto Company Profile

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.