Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Thursday. The company traded as high as $119.03 and last traded at $118.4120, with a volume of 251,859 shares. The stock had previously closed at $117.02.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VLTO. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Veralto from $113.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Veralto from $109.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday. BNP Paribas Exane reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up from $115.00) on shares of Veralto in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $111.00 price objective on Veralto in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $120.70.

Veralto Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $28.45 billion, a PE ratio of 28.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $99.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.03.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $1.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $0.09. Veralto had a return on equity of 35.08% and a net margin of 17.27%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.99 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Veralto Corporation will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 30th. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio is 12.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Veralto news, CAO Bernard M. Skeete sold 1,514 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.58, for a total transaction of $170,446.12. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 4,760 shares in the company, valued at $535,880.80. This represents a 24.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jennifer Honeycutt sold 7,098 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total value of $745,290.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 120,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,606,300. This represents a 5.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 46,025 shares of company stock worth $4,977,963. Insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VLTO. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension grew its holdings in Veralto by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension now owns 291,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,792,000 after acquiring an additional 55,348 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in shares of Veralto by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 219,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,443,000 after purchasing an additional 18,277 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise lifted its stake in shares of Veralto by 18.4% in the 2nd quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 130,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,594,000 after purchasing an additional 20,294 shares during the period. Formuepleje A S boosted its position in shares of Veralto by 61.8% in the 2nd quarter. Formuepleje A S now owns 42,528 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,771,000 after purchasing an additional 16,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Veralto in the 2nd quarter worth $13,887,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Company Profile

Veralto Corporation (NYSE: VLTO) is a global provider of technology, products and services that help customers manage water quality and improve the quality, safety and efficiency of packaged goods. The company serves municipal, industrial, commercial and consumer-facing markets through a portfolio of operating businesses.

Veralto’s Water Quality segment provides instruments, software and services used to test, monitor and treat water and wastewater. Its brands include Hach, Trojan Technologies and ChemTreat, which support applications such as laboratory and field testing, disinfection, water treatment and industrial water management.

The company’s Product Quality & Innovation segment supplies technologies used in product identification, packaging design, color management and quality inspection.