Vest Financial LLC Purchases Shares of 16,824 Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Vest Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 16,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,639,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veralto news, SVP Lesley Beneteau sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,368,499.64. This represents a 3.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.05, for a total value of $57,259.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $971,567.55. The trade was a 5.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,917 shares of company stock worth $5,423,033 in the last ninety days. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on VLTO shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup dropped their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Northcoast Research began coverage on Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Veralto presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.09.

Veralto Stock Performance

NYSE:VLTO opened at $100.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.03, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $95.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Veralto Co. has a 1-year low of $83.87 and a 1-year high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. Veralto had a return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. The company’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. Research analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.57%.

Veralto Company 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.