Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 3,706,890 shares, a decrease of 16.1% from the February 26th total of 4,417,712 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,566,483 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veralto

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VLTO. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Veralto in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $261,340,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 1,325,609 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Veralto by 263.8% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,798,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,435,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303,940 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Veralto by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,678,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $466,779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,169,572 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 997,778 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded Veralto from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. Robert W. Baird set a $108.00 target price on Veralto in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $104.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Veralto in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.22.

Veralto Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VLTO opened at $85.04 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $94.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.20. Veralto has a 12 month low of $83.86 and a 12 month high of $110.11.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Veralto had a return on equity of 35.77% and a net margin of 17.08%.Veralto’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. Veralto has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.100-4.200 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.970-1.010 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Veralto will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Veralto’s payout ratio is 13.87%.

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