Van ECK Associates Corp Increases Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,227 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 6,321 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp's holdings in Veralto were worth $9,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 20,177 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,055,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 2.6% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 3,851 shares of the company's stock valued at $431,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Veralto by 1.4% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 7,338 shares of the company's stock valued at $821,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its position in Veralto by 4.5% during the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 2,394 shares of the company's stock valued at $268,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Insigneo Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Veralto by 1.8% during the third quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,767 shares of the company's stock valued at $645,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on VLTO. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on 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 reduced their price objective on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a "buy" rating and a $125.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Six investment 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 company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $112.55.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at $2,067,795.60. This trade represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VLTO traded up $0.04 during trading on Thursday, hitting $97.72. 1,114,768 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,439,669. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $83.34 and a 52-week high of $115.00. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $101.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.99. The company has a market cap of $24.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.26, a PEG ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 1.06.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. This is an increase from Veralto's previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. Veralto's dividend payout ratio is presently 13.17%.

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.