HM Payson & Co. Lowers Stock Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

HM Payson & Co. lessened its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,993 shares of the company’s stock after selling 381 shares during the quarter. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $712,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VLTO. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 9.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,074,654,000 after purchasing an additional 860,608 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 207.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,122,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,608,000 after purchasing an additional 757,389 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 10.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $654,232,000 after purchasing an additional 558,393 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,986,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total value of $1,045,044.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,486,173.60. The trade was a 9.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 directly owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at $2,067,795.60. The trade was a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,467 shares of company stock valued at $1,150,366 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Veralto Stock Up 2.3 %

VLTO stock opened at $100.16 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $85.90 and a twelve month high of $115.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $100.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.34. The stock has a market cap of $24.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.99, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.11.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. Research analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Veralto’s payout ratio is 13.17%.

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.