Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) Stock Price Down 5.2% – Here’s Why

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) was down 5.2% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $96.26 and last traded at $95.76. Approximately 591,230 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average daily volume of 1,301,197 shares. The stock had previously closed at $100.98.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Veralto Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a PE ratio of 30.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.25.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a return on equity of 52.85% and a net margin of 15.69%. Equities analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.11 dividend. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

Institutional Trading of Veralto

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 9.8% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Amundi increased its position in Veralto by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 7,169,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $731,084,000 after acquiring an additional 158,342 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Veralto by 10.5% in 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. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Veralto by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,928,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009,170 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its position in Veralto by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,329,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $372,462,000 after acquiring an additional 162,347 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.