Essex Financial Services Inc. Has $237,000 Holdings in Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Essex Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,332 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $237,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC grew its holdings in Veralto by 5.9% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $687,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,186 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,929,000 after buying an additional 726 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. bought a new position in Veralto in the 3rd quarter worth $1,085,000. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in Veralto during the 3rd quarter worth $996,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its holdings in Veralto by 112.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 55,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,183,000 after acquiring an additional 29,313 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VLTO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $112.55.

Veralto Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Veralto stock opened at $99.77 on Friday. Veralto Co. has a 52-week low of $82.90 and a 52-week high of $115.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.92 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $102.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $106.26.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.05. Veralto had a net margin of 16.04% and a return on equity of 49.29%. On average, analysts expect that Veralto Co. will post 3.63 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were 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 was Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.17%.

Insider Activity at Veralto

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

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.