Wealthfront Advisers LLC Acquires New Shares in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 92,714 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,664,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FTV. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,437,953,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,028 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,626,463,000. Viking Global Investors LP raised its stake in Fortive by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after buying an additional 4,571,056 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Fortive by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,046,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,106,760,000 after buying an additional 4,532,031 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the 4th quarter valued at $491,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Fortive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortive has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.10.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTV opened at $59.41 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $17.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive Corporation has a 1-year low of $46.54 and a 1-year high of $64.56.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.03. Fortive had a net margin of 12.38% and a return on equity of 15.33%. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. The company’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This is an increase from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.20%.

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total transaction of $533,492.58. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 79,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Profile

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.