Hsbc Holdings PLC Grows Stock Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 10.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,145,311 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 108,098 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned about 0.46% of Veralto worth $116,627,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VLTO. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Veralto during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in Veralto in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Albion Financial Group UT increased its position in shares of Veralto by 2,100.0% during the fourth quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 352 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Veralto in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on VLTO. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Veralto from $110.00 to $102.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $111.10.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $89.04 on Wednesday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $95.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.42. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $83.87 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.66, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.97.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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, equities analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Veralto's dividend payout ratio is presently 13.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $1,045,044.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,486,173.60. The trade was a 9.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.05, for a total transaction of $57,259.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 10,011 shares in the company, valued at $971,567.55. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,471 shares of company stock valued at $2,234,030. 0.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

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