Wendell David Associates Inc. Cuts Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Wendell David Associates Inc. reduced its position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 5.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,059 shares of the company’s stock after selling 760 shares during the period. Wendell David Associates Inc.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $1,228,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in Veralto by 2.6% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 3,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 7,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $821,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its position in shares of Veralto by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $268,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 1.8% during the third quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $645,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Finally, Graypoint LLC raised its holdings in shares of Veralto by 2.4% in the third quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 4,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VLTO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veralto has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.27.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the company’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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. This represents a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Down 0.3 %

Veralto stock opened at $102.73 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Veralto Co. has a 52 week low of $75.05 and a 52 week high of $115.00. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $104.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $106.02. The firm has a market cap of $25.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Veralto Increases Dividend

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

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.