Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Stock Position Lifted by Shell Asset Management Co.

Shell Asset Management Co. raised its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 81.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,710 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 3,458 shares during the quarter. Shell Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Veralto were worth $785,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in Veralto by 43.8% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 729,081 shares of the company's stock worth $81,556,000 after purchasing an additional 222,076 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,448,648 shares of the company's stock worth $273,906,000 after purchasing an additional 314,412 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Veralto by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 14,115 shares of the company's stock worth $1,438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,889 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in Veralto by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,228 shares of the company's stock worth $1,755,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new stake in Veralto during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,192,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VLTO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Northcoast Research began coverage on shares of 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 increased their price target on Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $110.09.

Veralto Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE:VLTO traded down $0.43 on Friday, reaching $100.55. The stock had a trading volume of 231,560 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,466,213. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average of $94.76 and a 200 day moving average of $99.66. The stock has a market cap of $24.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. Veralto Co. has a 12-month low of $83.86 and a 12-month high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion for 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%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Veralto's dividend payout ratio is presently 12.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 31,689 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $2,968,308.63. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 17,434 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,633,042.78. This trade represents a 64.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $59,206.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,470 shares in the company, valued at $849,964.50. This represents a 6.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,073 shares of company stock valued at $6,442,018 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

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.