Jefferies Financial Group Begins Coverage on Veralto (NYSE:VLTO)

Research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage set a "buy" rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group's target price indicates a potential upside of 18.16% from the company's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VLTO. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $109.50.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VLTO traded up $0.44 during trading on Thursday, reaching $105.79. The stock had a trading volume of 856,086 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,513,809. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.13. The stock has a market cap of $26.16 billion, a PE ratio of 32.75, a P/E/G ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.91. Veralto has a one year low of $73.91 and a one year high of $115.00. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $107.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $105.24.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 52.85%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Veralto will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total value of $1,452,878.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 138,546 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,260,841.90. The trade was a 8.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.55, for a total transaction of $84,750.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,165 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,256,620.75. This trade represents a 6.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,695 shares of company stock valued at $1,615,017. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veralto

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company's stock worth $1,074,654,000 after purchasing an additional 860,608 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Veralto by 207.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,122,898 shares of the company's stock worth $125,608,000 after buying an additional 757,389 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Veralto by 10.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company's stock worth $654,232,000 after buying an additional 558,393 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in Veralto by 29.0% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,864,038 shares of the company's stock valued at $208,511,000 after acquiring an additional 418,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Veralto in the second quarter valued at approximately $24,618,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company's stock.

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.