Defender Capital LLC. Takes $20.27 Million Position in Veralto Corporation $VLTO

Defender Capital LLC. purchased a new stake in Veralto Corporation (NYSE:VLTO) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 203,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,266,000. Veralto accounts for approximately 6.6% of Defender Capital LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of VLTO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Veralto by 2.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,058,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,311,135,000 after purchasing an additional 852,276 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Veralto by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,449,828 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,115,182,000 after buying an additional 191,872 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 3,839,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,503,000 after buying an additional 144,044 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Veralto by 24.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,508,512 shares of the company’s stock worth $374,042,000 after buying an additional 685,614 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Veralto during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $264,150,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VLTO. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Veralto from $111.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $108.00 price objective on shares of Veralto in a report on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Veralto in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. UBS Group set a $102.00 target price on shares of Veralto and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Veralto from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.22.

Veralto Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:VLTO opened at $87.07 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.52. Veralto Corporation has a 1 year low of $83.86 and a 1 year high of $110.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.58 billion, a PE ratio of 23.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $94.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.53.

Veralto (NYSE:VLTO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.06. Veralto had a return on equity of 35.77% and a net margin of 17.08%.The company had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 research analysts expect that Veralto Corporation will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Veralto Announces Dividend

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

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