Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 34,530 Fortive Corporation $FTV

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 34,530 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,109,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTV. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Fortive by 43.6% during the 4th 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. Arkadios Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in Fortive by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 9,047 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $500,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC raised its position in Fortive by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 1,113 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in Fortive by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC lifted its holdings in Fortive by 29.8% in the 4th quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 953 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE FTV opened at $59.64 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.47. Fortive Corporation has a 52-week low of $46.54 and a 52-week high of $64.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $18.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly 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. On average, equities research analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its board has approved 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 buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.07 dividend. 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 presently 14.20%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owned 79,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FTV. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $68.00 price objective (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock 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.