Short Interest in Vontier Co. (NYSE:VNT) Decreases By 14.0%

Vontier Co. (NYSE:VNT) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,330,000 shares, a drop of 14.0% from the December 15th total of 2,710,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 841,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vontier

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Covestor Ltd grew its position in Vontier by 37.1% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vontier by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 4,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Vontier by 10.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,000 after purchasing an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in Vontier by 6.2% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 7,729 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,000 after buying an additional 448 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Vontier by 12.5% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on Vontier from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Vontier from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Vontier from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Vontier in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vontier has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.63.

Vontier Stock Up 1.0 %

VNT traded up $0.38 on Thursday, reaching $37.20. 543,948 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 627,485. The company has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.25, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $37.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.27. Vontier has a 52-week low of $31.22 and a 52-week high of $45.62.

Vontier (NYSE:VNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $750.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $729.23 million. Vontier had a net margin of 13.54% and a return on equity of 45.48%. Vontier’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Vontier will post 2.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vontier Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were paid a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.27%. Vontier’s payout ratio is 3.83%.

Vontier Company Profile

Vontier Corporation provides mobility ecosystem solutions worldwide. The company operates through Mobility Technologies, Repair Solutions, and Environmental and Fueling Solutions segments. The Mobility Technologies segment provides digitally equipment solutions for mobility ecosystem, such as point-of-sale and payment systems, workflow automation, telematics, data analytics, software platform, and integrated solutions for alternative fuel dispensing.