Hartford Investment Management Co. Sells 295 Shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO)

Hartford Investment Management Co. lowered its position in shares of Veralto Co. (NYSE:VLTO) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 15,269 shares of the company’s stock after selling 295 shares during the period. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Veralto were worth $1,555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Veralto by 5.9% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,138 shares of the company’s stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in 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 third quarter valued at approximately $1,085,000. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Veralto in the third quarter valued at approximately $996,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in shares of 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 worth $6,183,000 after acquiring an additional 29,313 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Veralto Price Performance

NYSE:VLTO opened at $99.77 on Friday. Veralto Co. has a 1-year low of $82.90 and a 1-year high of $115.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.87, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 1.06.

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

Veralto Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Veralto’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.09. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Veralto’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.17%.

Insider Activity at Veralto

In other Veralto news, SVP Melissa Aquino sold 463 shares of Veralto stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.60, for a total transaction of $46,114.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,067,795.60. The trade was a 2.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $116.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Veralto in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Veralto from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Veralto presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.55.

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.