Rafferty Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,098 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,379 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $2,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Savant Capital LLC raised its stake in Veralto by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 20,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,055,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Veralto by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in Veralto by 17.3% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Veralto by 35.3% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Veralto by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,405 shares of the company’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE VLTO opened at $102.11 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $94.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. 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 results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,434 shares in the company, valued at $1,633,042.78. This represents a 64.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $1,045,044.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,486,173.60. The trade was a 9.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,073 shares of company stock worth $6,442,018 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on VLTO. 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 research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup cut their price objective 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. 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 research report on Thursday, May 1st. 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 research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Northcoast Research began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $110.09.

Veralto 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.