New York State Teachers Retirement System Reduces Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 11.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 244,090 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 32,476 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Fortive were worth $13,493,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FTV. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in Fortive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Fortive by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Fortive by 246.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the period. Dorato Capital Management purchased a new stake in Fortive in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 149.3% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 845 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 506 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortive Price Performance

NYSE:FTV opened at $62.70 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.55 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.87. Fortive Corporation has a 1 year low of $46.34 and a 1 year high of $63.40.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s payout ratio is currently 14.37%.

Fortive declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Argus upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research lowered Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.83.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total value of $2,891,941.17. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company headquartered in Everett, Washington. The company was created through a spin?off from Danaher Corporation in 2016 and has since focused on building a portfolio of professional instrumentation and industrial technology businesses. In 2020 Fortive completed a further portfolio separation with the spin?off of Vontier, concentrating Fortive’s activities on higher?margin instrumentation, software and services.

Fortive’s operations center on professional test and measurement, sensing and monitoring, software?enabled solutions, and lifecycle services that support industrial and commercial customers.