Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Purchases 11,580 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 16.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 83,067 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 11,580 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Veralto were worth $8,460,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,103 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 15,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 23,720.1% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 106,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,937,000 after purchasing an additional 106,266 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Veralto by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 12,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in Veralto by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 13,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,067,795.60. This represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of VLTO opened at $100.76 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.92. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.84. Veralto Co. has a 52-week low of $85.70 and a 52-week high of $115.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.92 billion, a PE ratio of 30.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. Sell-side analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is 13.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VLTO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.55.

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.