Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) Short Interest Up 20.4% in February

Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,890,000 shares, a growth of 20.4% from the January 31st total of 4,060,000 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,420,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup lowered their target price 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.55.

Veralto Trading Up 2.3 %

NYSE:VLTO opened at $100.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $100.69 and a 200-day moving average of $105.37. The company has a market cap of $24.79 billion, a PE ratio of 29.99, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.11. Veralto has a one year low of $85.90 and a one year high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 EPS 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, equities research analysts expect that Veralto will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Veralto’s payout ratio is presently 13.17%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 104,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,486,173.60. This trade represents a 9.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 590 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.35, for a total transaction of $59,206.50. Following 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,467 shares of company stock valued at $1,150,366. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veralto

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. PEAK6 Investments LLC grew its position in Veralto by 246.3% in the 3rd quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,000 after purchasing an additional 6,211 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Veralto by 34.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 3,923,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,170 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its position in Veralto by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,755,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Veralto by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 163,227 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,259,000 after purchasing an additional 15,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank grew its position in Veralto by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 53,622 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,461,000 after purchasing an additional 3,284 shares in the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.