Nomura Holdings Inc. Makes New $830,000 Investment in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 8,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VLTO. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 43.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 729,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,556,000 after buying an additional 222,076 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 14.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,448,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,906,000 after buying an additional 314,412 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 15.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 14,115 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,438,000 after buying an additional 1,889 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Veralto by 66.8% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 3,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $362,000 after purchasing an additional 1,425 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont grew its holdings in Veralto by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 2,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 806 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,418 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $989,710.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,219 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,090,805. The trade was a 8.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 67,073 shares of company stock worth $6,442,018. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Northcoast Research assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $110.09.

Veralto Stock Up 0.4%

Veralto stock opened at $102.11 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.31 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $83.87 and a twelve month high of $115.00. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $94.53 and a 200-day moving average of $99.65.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. Veralto’s payout ratio 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.