Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Short Interest Update

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,110,000 shares, a decline of 16.8% from the September 30th total of 3,740,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,530,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Veralto Price Performance

VLTO stock traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $104.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,296,581 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,555,060. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $25.67 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.13. Veralto has a 12 month low of $66.69 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $110.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $102.93.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Veralto will post 3.47 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 11.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VLTO has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Veralto from $98.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $118.00 price objective for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $108.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $80,360.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 12,671 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,352,249.12. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $80,360.16. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,671 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,352,249.12. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 138,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,260,841.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,039 shares of company stock valued at $3,992,665. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Veralto

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cigna Investments Inc. New increased its stake in Veralto by 8.9% in the third quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New now owns 2,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its stake in Veralto by 16.6% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 7,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $844,000 after purchasing an additional 1,072 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in Veralto by 33.7% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 5,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $650,000 after purchasing an additional 1,466 shares during the period. Highline Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Veralto in the third quarter worth $273,000. Finally, Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its stake in Veralto by 4.5% in the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

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.