Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Lowers Holdings in Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC reduced its stake in shares of Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 8.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 50,652 shares of the company's stock after selling 4,883 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Veralto were worth $4,936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,347,185 shares of the company's stock worth $2,989,011,000 after acquiring an additional 146,234 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,169,702 shares of the company's stock valued at $731,084,000 after purchasing an additional 158,342 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,601,676 shares of the company's stock valued at $670,781,000 after purchasing an additional 733,056 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in Veralto by 1.2% in the 4th 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. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 401,228 shares during the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Lesley Beneteau sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.84, for a total value of $46,184.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 13,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,368,499.64. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.67, for a total transaction of $2,968,308.63. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 17,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,633,042.78. This trade represents a 64.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 46,503 shares of company stock worth $4,396,629 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VLTO. Northcoast Research started coverage on Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a "buy" rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Six 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, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $110.09.

Veralto Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Veralto stock traded up $1.14 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $101.31. 1,469,811 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,446,304. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $97.48 and a 200-day moving average of $98.62. Veralto Corporation has a 12 month low of $83.87 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The company has a market cap of $25.11 billion, a PE ratio of 28.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 2.19.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. Veralto had a net margin of 16.56% and a return on equity of 45.63%. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Veralto Corporation will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Veralto's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.57%.

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.