Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $112.8889.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Veralto from $123.00 to $114.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Veralto from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Veralto from $112.00 to $111.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Veralto in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $105.00 price target (down previously from $125.00) on shares of Veralto in a report on Wednesday, December 10th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Mattias Bystrom sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.73, for a total value of $101,730.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 31,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,197,373.90. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veralto

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Veralto in the second quarter worth approximately $264,150,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Veralto by 28.0% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 6,235,563 shares of the company’s stock worth $607,656,000 after purchasing an additional 1,363,502 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Veralto by 6,015.1% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,347,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,045,000 after buying an additional 1,325,609 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Veralto by 86.1% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,157,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $226,615,000 after buying an additional 997,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Veralto by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,058,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,311,135,000 after buying an additional 852,276 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of VLTO stock opened at $102.60 on Friday. Veralto has a 52-week low of $83.86 and a 52-week high of $110.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market cap of $25.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $100.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.90.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.04. Veralto had a return on equity of 38.69% and a net margin of 16.75%.The firm had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.89 earnings per share. Veralto’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Veralto has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.820-3.850 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.950-0.980 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Veralto will post 3.66 EPS for the current year.

Veralto Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is a positive change from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Veralto’s payout ratio is 12.05%.

About Veralto

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. This segment provides water solutions, including chemical reagents, services, and digital solutions.