Searle & CO. Acquires New Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Searle & CO. acquired a new stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 2,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth about $347,827,000. abrdn plc purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth about $80,959,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth about $60,495,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth about $59,869,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter worth about $47,229,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Veralto Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Veralto stock traded up $0.70 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $94.38. 1,091,863 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,613,108. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $88.86 and its 200 day moving average is $80.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $65.51 and a 12 month high of $95.56.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Veralto from $78.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Argus initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $90.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Friday, March 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. BNP Paribas began coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $103.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Veralto from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Veralto has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 8,041 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.56, for a total value of $752,315.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,942,399.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 8,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.56, for a total value of $752,315.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,942,399.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mattias Bystrom sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.10, for a total transaction of $43,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,310 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,609,691. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.31% 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.