Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,108,382 shares of the company's stock after selling 21,537 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.45% of Veralto worth $108,012,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in VLTO. Norges Bank bought a new position in Veralto in the 4th quarter worth about $289,028,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 222.3% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,602,399 shares of the company's stock valued at $265,054,000 after acquiring an additional 1,794,992 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $133,058,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new position in Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $96,888,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Veralto by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,601,676 shares of the company's stock worth $670,781,000 after acquiring an additional 733,056 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on VLTO shares. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Northcoast Research started coverage on Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $110.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veralto has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $110.09.

Insider Activity at Veralto

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 848 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.55, for a total value of $85,266.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 8,433 shares of the company's stock, valued at $847,938.15. The trade was a 9.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the business's 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 17,434 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,633,042.78. The trade was a 64.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 45,913 shares of company stock worth $4,339,370 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

Veralto Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE VLTO opened at $103.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.64, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.91. Veralto Corporation has a one year low of $83.87 and a one year high of $115.00. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $99.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $98.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 1.92.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last released its 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. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 16.56% and a return on equity of 45.63%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Veralto Corporation will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. 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.

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