New York State Common Retirement Fund Buys 8,293 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 259,925 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,293 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.11% of Veralto worth $26,473,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Veralto in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Albion Financial Group UT increased its stake in Veralto by 2,100.0% in the 4th quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 352 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Veralto by 35.3% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed 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. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Six 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 an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.55.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total value of $46,114.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,067,795.60. This trade represents a 2.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Price Performance

VLTO opened at $98.21 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $101.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.93. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $85.70 and a 1 year high of $115.00. The firm has a market cap of $24.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders 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. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.