Clearbridge Investments LLC Has $137.80 Million Stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Clearbridge Investments LLC decreased its position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 7.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,352,960 shares of the company’s stock after selling 115,205 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.55% of Veralto worth $137,799,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. PEAK6 Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 246.3% during the 3rd quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,000 after purchasing an additional 6,211 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Veralto by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in Veralto by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,755,000 after buying an additional 2,676 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in Veralto by 10.2% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 163,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,259,000 after buying an additional 15,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its holdings in Veralto by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 53,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,461,000 after buying an additional 3,284 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VLTO. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Veralto has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.50.

Insider Activity

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total value of $1,045,044.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at $10,486,173.60. This trade represents a 9.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,067,795.60. This trade represents a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,881 shares of company stock worth $2,176,770. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of VLTO stock opened at $95.97 on Monday. Veralto Co. has a 12-month low of $85.91 and a 12-month high of $115.00. The company has a market capitalization of $23.76 billion, a PE ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $99.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $103.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. As a group, analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.17%.

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.