BNP Paribas Buys 12,119 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

BNP Paribas grew its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 30,297.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,159 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 12,119 shares during the period. BNP Paribas' holdings in Veralto were worth $1,239,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth approximately $289,028,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Veralto by 222.3% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,602,399 shares of the company's stock valued at $265,054,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794,992 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in Veralto in the fourth quarter worth $133,058,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company's stock worth $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at $96,888,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.67, for a total value of $2,968,308.63. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,434 shares in the company, valued at $1,633,042.78. The trade was a 64.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total value of $59,206.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,470 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $849,964.50. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 64,578 shares of company stock valued at $6,192,048. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on VLTO shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Northcoast Research began coverage on Veralto in a research report on Tuesday. They set a "buy" rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $110.09.

Veralto Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of VLTO traded down $0.21 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $97.07. The stock had a trading volume of 1,428,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,485,609. The company has a market cap of $24.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.06, 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 quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $94.22 and a 200 day moving average of $99.78.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Veralto had a return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. Veralto's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

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

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.