Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Grows Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 38.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,841 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,553 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in Veralto were worth $1,308,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Veralto during the 4th quarter worth $289,028,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Veralto by 222.3% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,602,399 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,054,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794,992 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veralto during the 4th quarter worth approximately $133,058,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 207.2% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,122,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,608,000 after buying an additional 757,389 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veralto by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,601,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $670,781,000 after buying an additional 733,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Veralto news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 9.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 directly owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,067,795.60. This trade represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,578 shares of company stock valued at $6,192,048 over the last 90 days. 0.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Northcoast Research started coverage on Veralto in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Veralto presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.09.

Veralto Stock Up 1.2 %

VLTO opened at $97.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $24.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $94.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.96. Veralto Co. has a twelve month low of $83.87 and a twelve month high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.92.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.08. Veralto had a return on equity of 49.29% and a net margin of 16.04%. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.57%.

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.