Insider Selling: Fortive (NYSE:FTV) SVP Sells $533,492.58 in Stock

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) SVP Peter Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total transaction of $533,492.58. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 79,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. This represents a 9.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Fortive Trading Up 0.3%

FTV opened at $61.75 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.15. Fortive Corporation has a 1-year low of $46.54 and a 1-year high of $64.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.54 and a beta of 1.06.

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

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

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortive

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FTV. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Fortive by 97.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,706 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 2,811 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in Fortive by 6.9% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $484,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Fortive by 246.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 357 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Fortive by 87.9% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in Fortive by 3.3% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 80,595 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,201,000 after buying an additional 2,548 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Argus raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.10.

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.