Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Here’s Why

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) saw strong trading volume on Tuesday . 800,383 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 47% from the previous session’s volume of 1,506,411 shares.The stock last traded at $103.60 and had previously closed at $104.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on VLTO shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.50.

Veralto Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $25.65 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $106.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $105.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.13.

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

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In related news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.55, for a total transaction of $84,750.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,256,620.75. This trade represents a 6.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total value of $1,452,878.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 138,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,260,841.90. The trade was a 8.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,695 shares of company stock worth $1,615,017 over the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of VLTO. State Street Corp grew its position in Veralto by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,074,654,000 after acquiring an additional 860,608 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 10.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,232,000 after purchasing an additional 558,393 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 5.0% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,178,777 shares of the company’s stock worth $398,948,000 after purchasing an additional 200,657 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 5.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,329,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $372,462,000 after buying an additional 162,347 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,885,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,827,000 after buying an additional 11,430 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% 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.