Vontier Co. (NYSE:VNT) Short Interest Update

Vontier Co. (NYSE:VNT) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,830,000 shares, a decline of 33.4% from the September 15th total of 4,250,000 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 901,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VNT. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Vontier in the fourth quarter worth $259,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vontier in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda increased its position in shares of Vontier by 311.6% during the fourth quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 19,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $665,000 after buying an additional 14,563 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vontier during the 1st quarter valued at $27,770,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in Vontier in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.83% of the company’s stock.

Vontier Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Vontier stock traded up $0.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $34.51. The stock had a trading volume of 826,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 881,818. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.85. Vontier has a 52 week low of $28.84 and a 52 week high of $45.62. The company has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.14.

Vontier (NYSE:VNT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by ($0.08). Vontier had a return on equity of 49.17% and a net margin of 13.43%. The business had revenue of $696.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $746.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Vontier will post 2.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vontier Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 5th were given a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 5th. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Vontier’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VNT. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Vontier from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays dropped their price target on Vontier from $50.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Vontier from $45.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Argus lowered shares of Vontier from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.25.

Vontier Company Profile

Vontier Corporation provides mobility ecosystem solutions worldwide. The company operates through Mobility Technologies, Repair Solutions, and Environmental and Fueling Solutions segments. The Mobility Technologies segment provides digitally equipment solutions for mobility ecosystem, such as point-of-sale and payment systems, workflow automation, telematics, data analytics, software platform, and integrated solutions for alternative fuel dispensing.