Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Purchases 1,889 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 15.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,115 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,889 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $1,438,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VLTO. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Veralto during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veralto during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Veralto by 692.3% in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 309 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Veralto by 140.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 437 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in Veralto during the third quarter valued at $46,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Veralto

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 sale, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Veralto Price Performance

NYSE:VLTO opened at $103.26 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.87, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.00. Veralto Co. has a 1 year low of $75.05 and a 1 year high of $115.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 2.13 and a quick ratio of 1.87.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.85 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. Veralto had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 52.85%. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Veralto Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.11 dividend. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. This is a boost from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

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.