Empire Life Investments Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Empire Life Investments Inc. trimmed its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 97.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 616 shares of the company’s stock after selling 27,806 shares during the period. Empire Life Investments Inc.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $63,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WealthPLAN Partners LLC boosted its position in Veralto by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC now owns 14,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,450,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in Veralto by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 11,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Figure 8 Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Veralto during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,446,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in Veralto by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 549,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,959,000 after purchasing an additional 23,768 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 89,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,088,000 after acquiring an additional 6,321 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VLTO. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.55.

Veralto Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:VLTO opened at $98.04 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Veralto Co. has a 52-week low of $83.34 and a 52-week high of $115.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $102.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.21. The company has a market capitalization of $24.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its 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 return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. As a group, analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 13.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,067,795.60. This trade represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.