First Trust Advisors LP Sells 262,742 Shares of Fortive Corporation $FTV

First Trust Advisors LP cut its holdings in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 28.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 669,656 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 262,742 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Fortive were worth $37,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in Fortive in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Fortive by 43.6% during the fourth quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the period. Main Street Group LTD bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Fortive in the fourth quarter worth about $45,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Argus upgraded Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. The trade was a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTV opened at $62.85 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $60.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.59. The company has a market cap of $19.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.63 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive Corporation has a 12 month low of $46.34 and a 12 month high of $64.33.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.98 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were given a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.37%.

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.