Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) Stock Gets Downgrade from Wall Street Zen

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. BNP Paribas Exane reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up from $115.00) on shares of Veralto in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $111.00 target price on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Veralto from $100.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Veralto to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Veralto from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, October 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veralto presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.60.

Veralto Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:VLTO opened at $104.52 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.78, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.48 billion, a PE ratio of 26.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.62. Veralto has a 1 year low of $80.03 and a 1 year high of $105.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $97.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.28.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The company reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.10. Veralto had a return on equity of 34.76% and a net margin of 17.35%. The company had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Veralto has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.350-4.430 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.060-1.090 EPS. Analysts expect that Veralto will post 4.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 7,098 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $745,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 120,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,606,300. This represents a 5.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 986 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.05, for a total transaction of $95,691.30. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 8,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $831,233.25. The trade was a 10.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 15,181 shares of company stock worth $1,561,469 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veralto

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension increased its position in shares of Veralto by 23.4% during the first quarter. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension now owns 291,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,792,000 after purchasing an additional 55,348 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 9.1% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 219,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,443,000 after purchasing an additional 18,277 shares in the last quarter. Groupe la Francaise lifted its position in Veralto by 18.4% in the second quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 130,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,594,000 after purchasing an additional 20,294 shares during the period. Formuepleje A S lifted its position in Veralto by 61.8% in the second quarter. Formuepleje A S now owns 42,528 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,771,000 after purchasing an additional 16,240 shares during the period. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in Veralto in the second quarter worth $13,887,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Company Profile

Veralto Corporation (NYSE: VLTO) is a global provider of technology, products and services that help customers manage water quality and improve the quality, safety and efficiency of packaged goods. The company serves municipal, industrial, commercial and consumer-facing markets through a portfolio of operating businesses.

Veralto’s Water Quality segment provides instruments, software and services used to test, monitor and treat water and wastewater. Its brands include Hach, Trojan Technologies and ChemTreat, which support applications such as laboratory and field testing, disinfection, water treatment and industrial water management.

The company’s Product Quality & Innovation segment supplies technologies used in product identification, packaging design, color management and quality inspection.