Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Shares Bought by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV raised its position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 37.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,005,742 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 271,920 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned about 0.41% of Veralto worth $102,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VLTO. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Veralto during the third quarter worth $25,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Veralto by 692.3% during the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 309 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT raised its holdings in Veralto by 2,100.0% in the 4th quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Veralto by 140.1% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of VLTO opened at $101.79 on Monday. Veralto Co. has a fifty-two week low of $75.05 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $103.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.13. The company has a market capitalization of $25.17 billion, a PE ratio of 31.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.04. Veralto had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 52.85%. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Veralto’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is 13.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on VLTO. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Veralto has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.18.

Insider Activity at Veralto

In related news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total transaction of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. This trade represents a 6.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.