Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Sells 3,309 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT trimmed its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 113,994 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,309 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT’s holdings in Veralto were worth $11,610,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PEAK6 Investments LLC raised its holdings in Veralto by 246.3% in 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. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted 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 valued at $400,928,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009,170 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in Veralto by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,228 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,755,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of 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 raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 6.5% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VLTO shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped 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. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.55.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VLTO opened at $97.72 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $24.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.26, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $101.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.93. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $83.34 and a 52-week high of $115.00.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 anticipate that Veralto Co. will post 3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. 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.