Sunbelt Securities Inc. Sells 125 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. lessened its holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 890 shares of the company’s stock after selling 125 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $100,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VLTO. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Veralto by 9.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,074,654,000 after purchasing an additional 860,608 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veralto by 207.2% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,122,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,608,000 after buying an additional 757,389 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Veralto by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $654,232,000 after acquiring an additional 558,393 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in Veralto by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,864,038 shares of the company’s stock worth $208,511,000 after acquiring an additional 418,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Veralto during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $24,618,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VLTO shares. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. 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 report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.55, for a total transaction of $84,750.15. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,165 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,256,620.75. This represents a 6.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total value 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 represents a 8.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 14,695 shares of company stock worth $1,615,017. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $104.22 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $25.77 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a PEG ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $107.02 and a 200 day moving average of $105.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $73.91 and a 12 month high of $115.00.

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, research analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.35%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.11%.

Veralto 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.