AQR Capital Management LLC Raises Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 21.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 195,218 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 33,986 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Veralto worth $19,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,347,185 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,989,011,000 after purchasing an additional 146,234 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,169,702 shares of the company's stock worth $731,084,000 after buying an additional 158,342 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,601,676 shares of the company's stock valued at $670,781,000 after acquiring an additional 733,056 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in Veralto by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,764,889 shares of the company's stock worth $485,304,000 after purchasing an additional 54,795 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Veralto by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,541,367 shares of the company's stock worth $462,538,000 after acquiring an additional 401,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.28% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.67, for a total value of $2,968,308.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,434 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,633,042.78. This trade represents a 64.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $1,045,044.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at $10,486,173.60. The trade was a 9.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,578 shares of company stock worth $6,192,048 in the last ninety days. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Northcoast Research assumed coverage on Veralto in a research report on Tuesday. They set a "buy" rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veralto has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $110.09.

Veralto Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE VLTO traded up $1.19 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $97.28. The stock had a trading volume of 1,145,814 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,487,484. The business's fifty day moving average price is $94.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.07. The firm has a market cap of $24.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. Veralto Co. has a 52-week low of $83.87 and a 52-week high of $115.00. 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 (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. Veralto had a return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Veralto's payout ratio is currently 12.57%.

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.