Eastern Bank Increases Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Eastern Bank increased its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 79,816 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Veralto were worth $8,129,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake 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. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 140.1% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 437 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total value of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 10,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,071,601.83. The trade was a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.27.

Veralto Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of VLTO stock traded up $0.88 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $100.98. 820,426 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,107,823. Veralto Co. has a fifty-two week low of $73.91 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00. 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 $24.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.06. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $104.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.67.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. 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 payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

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.