MJP Associates Inc. ADV Increases Stake in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,741 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. MJP Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Veralto were worth $483,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its holdings in Veralto by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 24,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,527,000 after buying an additional 2,061 shares during the last quarter. Humankind Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Humankind Investments LLC now owns 5,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $542,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 147,993 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,073,000 after purchasing an additional 27,531 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 53,471 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,449,000 after purchasing an additional 5,101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ellevest Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter worth $231,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VLTO. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Veralto from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Veralto from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Veralto from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Northcoast Research assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veralto currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.09.

Veralto Trading Down 0.2%

VLTO stock opened at $97.07 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.06 billion, a PE ratio of 29.06, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.99. Veralto Co. has a 12 month low of $83.87 and a 12 month high of $115.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $94.22 and its 200 day moving average is $99.74. 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 quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Veralto

In other news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 104,496 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,486,173.60. This trade represents a 9.06% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,470 shares in the company, valued at $849,964.50. This represents a 6.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 64,578 shares of company stock valued at $6,192,048. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

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.