Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Purchased by DNB Asset Management AS

DNB Asset Management AS boosted its holdings in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 10.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 108,089 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,799 shares during the quarter. DNB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Fortive were worth $5,968,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Fortive by 102,687.8% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,487,060 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $413,361,000 after purchasing an additional 7,479,776 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at $222,000. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 97,641 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,391,000 after acquiring an additional 13,598 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 191,606 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,579,000 after acquiring an additional 4,470 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at $207,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

FTV stock opened at $59.07 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.37, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.90. Fortive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $46.34 and a fifty-two week high of $73.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortive Corporation will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s payout ratio is 14.37%.

Insider Activity

In other Fortive news, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total value of $416,022.54. Following the sale, the director directly owned 31,775 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,853,753.50. The trade was a 18.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. This trade represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FTV. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a report on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective 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 raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.54.

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.