Advisors Preferred LLC Purchases Shares of 4,185 Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Advisors Preferred LLC bought a new position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,185 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $421,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 55.8% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 888 shares of the company's stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in Veralto by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 3,240 shares of the company's stock valued at $362,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 5.9% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,138 shares of the company's stock valued at $687,000 after buying an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its position in Veralto by 524.7% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 2,024 shares of the company's stock worth $227,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA bought a new stake in Veralto during the 3rd quarter worth about $204,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on VLTO. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $112.55.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of VLTO traded up $0.25 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $100.06. 1,205,977 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,437,860. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $102.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.30. The company has a market cap of $24.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.96, a PEG ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 1.06. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $81.23 and a twelve month high of $115.00. 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 (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.11 dividend. This is an increase from Veralto's previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Veralto's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.