Legal & General Group Plc Lowers Stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO - Free Report) by 21.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,489,040 shares of the company's stock after selling 397,760 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.60% of Veralto worth $151,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Veralto by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 523,760 shares of the company's stock valued at $58,588,000 after acquiring an additional 2,662 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its holdings in Veralto by 120.2% during the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 8,130 shares of the company's stock worth $909,000 after acquiring an additional 4,438 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC raised its position in shares of Veralto by 4.3% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 51,041 shares of the company's stock worth $5,709,000 after buying an additional 2,109 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 72,423 shares of the company's stock valued at $8,101,000 after acquiring an additional 3,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC grew its stake in Veralto by 308.2% in the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,592 shares of the company's stock worth $164,000 after buying an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on VLTO. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target 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. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $111.90.

Veralto Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE VLTO traded down $0.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $90.62. 369,125 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,511,270. The company has a market cap of $22.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $96.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $102.28. Veralto Co. has a 52 week low of $83.87 and a 52 week high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.92.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. Research analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. 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 13.17%.

Insider Activity at Veralto

In related news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,067,795.60. The trade was a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,486,173.60. This trade represents a 9.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,471 shares of company stock worth $2,234,030. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Veralto Company 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.