DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc Grows Stock Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc grew its holdings in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 58.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,031 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,517 shares during the quarter. Veralto makes up about 1.4% of DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc’s holdings in Veralto were worth $1,531,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 46.1% in the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Veralto by 3.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,020,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,414,000 after purchasing an additional 35,345 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in shares of Veralto in the 2nd quarter valued at $237,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of Veralto by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 9,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $893,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the period. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Veralto by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 3,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $363,000 after buying an additional 496 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on VLTO. Citigroup dropped their price target on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Veralto from $117.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Veralto from $108.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Veralto from $119.00 to $117.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Surekha Trivedi sold 752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.91, for a total transaction of $77,388.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,413 shares in the company, valued at $1,071,601.83. This represents a 6.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Veralto Stock Performance

NYSE:VLTO opened at $102.98 on Friday. Veralto Co. has a 1-year low of $75.03 and a 1-year high of $115.00. The stock has a market cap of $25.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78, a PEG ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $104.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.76.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a return on equity of 52.85% and a net margin of 15.69%. Veralto’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.58%.

Veralto 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.