Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Acquires 31,304 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 461.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,091 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 31,304 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Veralto were worth $3,880,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 10.3% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,326,000 after acquiring an additional 1,103 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Veralto by 23,720.1% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 106,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,937,000 after purchasing an additional 106,266 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Veralto by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 12,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,368,000 after buying an additional 936 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its position 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 buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:VLTO opened at $99.26 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $101.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.75. Veralto Co. has a fifty-two week low of $85.70 and a fifty-two week high of $115.00. The company has a market capitalization of $24.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.72, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VLTO. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $112.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,067,795.60. This represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of Veralto 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at $10,486,173.60. This represents a 9.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,467 shares of company stock worth $1,150,366 over the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.