Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 625,983 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA reduced its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 91.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,586 shares of the company's stock after selling 625,983 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA's holdings in Veralto were worth $6,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Savant Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Veralto by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 20,177 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,055,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Veralto by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 622 shares of the company's stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 17.3% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 699 shares of the company's stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 418 shares of the company's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in Veralto by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 4,111 shares of the company's stock worth $419,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on VLTO. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target 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, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Veralto has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $113.50.

Veralto Stock Up 1.1 %

Veralto stock traded up $0.99 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $89.69. The company had a trading volume of 2,132,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,515,798. The firm's fifty day moving average is $96.73 and its 200-day moving average is $102.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.97. Veralto Co. has a fifty-two week low of $83.87 and a fifty-two week 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.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share 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, research analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,486,173.60. This represents a 9.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total value of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,067,795.60. This represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,471 shares of company stock worth $2,234,030 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by 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.