Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Boosts Stock Position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 25.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 72,957 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,900 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Veralto were worth $7,431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Veralto by 9.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,599,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,074,654,000 after buying an additional 860,608 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 10.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,868,620 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,232,000 after acquiring an additional 558,393 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Veralto by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,928,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009,170 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Veralto by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,329,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $372,462,000 after purchasing an additional 162,347 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 0.4% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,885,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,827,000 after purchasing an additional 11,430 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,067,795.60. This represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of VLTO opened at $100.04 on Tuesday. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $85.70 and a twelve month high of $115.00. The company has a market capitalization of $24.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $101.33 and a 200 day moving average of $105.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 research analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. This is a boost from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.17%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on VLTO shares. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. 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 for the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $112.55.

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.