Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 3.3% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 432,121 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,628 shares during the period. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $42,110,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,347,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,989,011,000 after purchasing an additional 146,234 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,169,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,084,000 after purchasing an additional 158,342 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,601,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $670,781,000 after purchasing an additional 733,056 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,764,889 shares of the company’s stock worth $485,304,000 after purchasing an additional 54,795 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,541,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $462,538,000 after purchasing an additional 401,228 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the business’s 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 owns 10,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $971,567.55. The trade was a 5.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.56, for a total transaction of $1,026,403.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 116,637 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,495,742.72. This represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 56,917 shares of company stock worth $5,423,033. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Veralto Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of VLTO opened at $98.22 on Thursday. Veralto Co. has a 1-year low of $83.87 and a 1-year high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $95.65 and a 200 day moving average of $99.27.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.57%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.