Strs Ohio Purchases 80,834 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Strs Ohio grew its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 63.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 208,831 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 80,834 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Veralto were worth $17,178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of VLTO. Impax Asset Management Group plc bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at about $347,827,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at about $60,495,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,869,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,229,000. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Veralto during the fourth quarter valued at about $19,498,000. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Mattias Bystrom sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.10, for a total value of $43,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,310 shares in the company, valued at $2,609,691. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Stock Performance

NYSE:VLTO opened at $90.88 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $87.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $79.58. Veralto Co. has a 52 week low of $65.51 and a 52 week high of $91.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Veralto Co. will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VLTO has been the subject of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $103.00 price target for the company. Argus initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $79.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Veralto from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Veralto in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $97.00 price target for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $92.00.

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.