Great Lakes Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $268,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI boosted its holdings in Veralto by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Fishman Jay A Ltd. MI now owns 4,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new stake in Veralto during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. First Command Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt purchased a new position in Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Trading Up 1.2 %

VLTO stock opened at $100.76 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.56. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $65.51 and a twelve month high of $100.92.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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. Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.34 EPS 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 issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In related news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 8,041 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.56, for a total transaction of $752,315.96. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at $1,942,399.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VLTO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Citigroup increased their price target on Veralto from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Veralto from $78.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Veralto from $92.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Veralto in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $104.00 price target on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.18.

Veralto 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.