Otter Creek Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Otter Creek Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 27.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 47,183 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,189 shares during the quarter. Veralto accounts for 3.3% of Otter Creek Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Otter Creek Advisors LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $4,806,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VLTO. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Veralto by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,326,000 after buying an additional 1,103 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Veralto by 0.9% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 15,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,709,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 23,720.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 106,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,937,000 after acquiring an additional 106,266 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Veralto by 8.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 12,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,368,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in Veralto by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 13,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VLTO has been the topic of several recent research reports. 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. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Veralto currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $1,045,044.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,486,173.60. This represents a 9.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $59,206.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $849,964.50. This represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,467 shares of company stock worth $1,150,366 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $99.70 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $24.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06. 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $85.70 and a 52 week high of $115.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $101.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.80.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. Equities analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.11 dividend. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 13.17%.

Veralto Company 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.