West Oak Capital LLC Lowers Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

West Oak Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 19.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 418 shares of the company’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $45,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 9.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,074,654,000 after buying an additional 860,608 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 10.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,232,000 after buying an additional 558,393 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,928,000 after buying an additional 1,009,170 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 5.1% during 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 boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 0.4% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,885,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $322,827,000 after buying an additional 11,430 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Veralto Stock Down 1.9 %

Veralto stock opened at $100.10 on Friday. Veralto Co. has a 1-year low of $73.91 and a 1-year high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The stock has a market cap of $24.76 billion, a PE ratio of 30.90, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $104.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.57.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. This is a boost from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s payout ratio is 13.58%.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total transaction of $77,388.32. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. The trade was a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on VLTO. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on 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 raised their price target on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $111.27.

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.