ING Groep NV Decreases Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

ING Groep NV lessened its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 188,986 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,862 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Veralto were worth $19,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc increased its holdings in Veralto by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc now owns 57,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,890,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Veralto during the fourth quarter worth about $2,139,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in Veralto by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 57,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,836,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC increased its holdings in Veralto by 115.4% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 10,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after buying an additional 5,769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in Veralto by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 16,343 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,665,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 $2,067,795.60. The trade was a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VLTO. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price 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 cut their target price 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. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.55.

Veralto Price Performance

VLTO stock opened at $97.72 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $101.70 and a 200-day moving average of $105.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $83.34 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

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

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.