Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.11 Per Share

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.11 per share on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09.

Veralto has a dividend payout ratio of 9.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Veralto to earn $3.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 9.7%.

Veralto Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of VLTO traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $101.33. 1,738,556 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,518,276. The company has a market cap of $25.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.27, a P/E/G ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. Veralto has a 12-month low of $73.91 and a 12-month high of $115.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.38.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. Veralto had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 52.85%. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Veralto will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VLTO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 753 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 11,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,256,620.75. This trade represents a 6.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 13,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.15, for a total transaction of $1,452,878.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 138,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,260,841.90. This represents a 8.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,695 shares of company stock valued at $1,615,017. 0.31% of the stock is currently 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.