Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) saw a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,220,000 shares, a growth of 28.3% from the December 15th total of 3,290,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,320,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total value of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,601.83. This represents a 6.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veralto

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Veralto in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Veralto in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Veralto by 692.3% in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 309 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT boosted its position in Veralto by 2,100.0% in the fourth quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VLTO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.27.

Veralto Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of VLTO stock traded down $1.08 on Friday, hitting $102.98. The stock had a trading volume of 1,372,680 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,140,188. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $104.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.76. The company has a market cap of $25.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.06. Veralto has a one year low of $75.03 and a one year high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a return on equity of 52.85% and a net margin of 15.69%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Veralto will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s payout ratio is 13.58%.

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.