Centaurus Financial Inc. Grows Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,051 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $229,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Veralto in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 11,100.0% during the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Veralto by 692.3% in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 309 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VLTO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Veralto in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $118.00 target price for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veralto presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.27.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.98, for a total value of $1,477,128.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 138,546 shares in the company, valued at $15,514,381.08. This represents a 8.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.55, for a total transaction of $84,750.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,256,620.75. This trade represents a 6.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,639 shares of company stock valued at $3,175,803. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Performance

VLTO opened at $107.97 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $26.70 billion and a P/E ratio of 33.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $108.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $104.70. Veralto Co. has a 52-week low of $72.85 and a 52-week high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.33%. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 11.11%.

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.