Empirical Finance LLC Grows Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,533 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $843,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Veralto during the first quarter worth $237,864,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Veralto by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,429,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,431,869,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568,103 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Veralto by 207.2% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,122,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,608,000 after acquiring an additional 757,389 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Veralto by 8.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,097,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $629,232,000 after purchasing an additional 553,021 shares during the period. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto during the second quarter worth about $39,343,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total transaction of $77,388.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,601.83. This trade represents a 6.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total transaction 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 approximately $15,260,841.90. This trade represents a 8.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,038 shares of company stock worth $3,989,693. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Veralto from $104.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Veralto from $100.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $108.27.

Veralto Price Performance

VLTO stock opened at $102.68 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $108.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $104.06. 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 stock has a market cap of $25.39 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.69. Veralto Co. has a fifty-two week low of $70.06 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00.

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

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. 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 payout ratio is 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.