1,804 Shares in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Purchased by World Investment Advisors LLC

World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in shares of Veralto by 32.9% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 243,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,256,000 after purchasing an additional 60,300 shares during the last quarter. Mirova US LLC boosted its position in Veralto by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,055,767 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,794,000 after buying an additional 22,324 shares during the last quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. now owns 78,326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,762,000 after buying an additional 14,398 shares during the period. Ecofi Investissements SA bought a new stake in shares of Veralto during the second quarter worth $7,019,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Veralto by 10.2% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 163,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,259,000 after acquiring an additional 15,048 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on VLTO. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total transaction of $1,452,878.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 138,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,260,841.90. This represents a 8.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total value of $77,388.32. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,695 shares of company stock worth $1,615,017 over the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Veralto Price Performance

VLTO opened at $101.33 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $25.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.91. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $73.91 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.35.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 11.11%.

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.