New Century Financial Group LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

New Century Financial Group LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 19.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,047 shares of the company’s stock after selling 495 shares during the quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. PEAK6 Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 246.3% in the third quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,000 after purchasing an additional 6,211 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,009,170 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,228 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,755,000 after acquiring an additional 2,676 shares in the last quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 22.5% in the third quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. now owns 78,326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,762,000 after purchasing an additional 14,398 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Veralto by 10.2% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 163,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,259,000 after purchasing an additional 15,048 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total transaction of $77,388.32. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. The trade was a 6.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of VLTO opened at $101.79 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $103.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $75.05 and a twelve month high of $115.00. The company has a market cap of $25.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.04. Veralto had a return on equity of 52.85% and a net margin of 15.69%. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veralto presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.18.

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.