Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Shares Purchased by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,764,889 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,795 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Veralto were worth $485,304,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. PEAK6 Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 246.3% during the 3rd quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,000 after acquiring an additional 6,211 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Veralto by 34.6% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its holdings in Veralto by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,228 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,755,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Veralto by 10.2% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 163,227 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,259,000 after buying an additional 15,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Veralto by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 53,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,461,000 after buying an additional 3,284 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on VLTO shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.50.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $98.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The business has a 50-day moving average of $99.62 and a 200 day moving average of $104.11. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $85.91 and a 12 month high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Veralto’s payout ratio is 13.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $59,206.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $849,964.50. The trade was a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total value of $1,045,044.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,486,173.60. The trade was a 9.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,881 shares of company stock worth $2,176,770 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company 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.