B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Lowers Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG cut its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 42.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 36,682 shares of the company’s stock after selling 26,697 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Veralto were worth $3,736,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 113.4% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 4,754 shares of the company’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 2,526 shares during the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 8.5% in the third quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 5,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $665,000 after acquiring an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Veralto by 119.6% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 10,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,212,000 after acquiring an additional 5,900 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 246.3% during the third 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. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in Veralto in the third quarter valued at about $46,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VLTO. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective 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 decreased their target price on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total value of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,067,795.60. The trade was a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 10,414 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,881 shares of company stock worth $2,176,770 over the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Veralto Price Performance

Veralto stock opened at $97.61 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.16 billion, a PE ratio of 29.23, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.11. Veralto Co. has a 52 week low of $85.91 and a 52 week high of $115.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.