Brokerages Set Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Price Target at $109.50

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $109.50.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VLTO. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Trading of Veralto

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Veralto by 32.9% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 243,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,256,000 after buying an additional 60,300 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC boosted its stake in Veralto by 246.3% in the third quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the company’s stock valued at $977,000 after acquiring an additional 6,211 shares during the last quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Veralto by 22.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. now owns 78,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,762,000 after acquiring an additional 14,398 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Veralto by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 163,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,259,000 after acquiring an additional 15,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ecofi Investissements SA acquired a new position in shares of Veralto in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,019,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Veralto Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $100.80 on Friday. Veralto has a 52-week low of $73.91 and a 52-week high of $115.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.93 billion, a PE ratio of 31.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $104.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $105.56.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Veralto will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

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

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.