Fortive (NYSE:FTV) SVP Sells 48,442 Shares of Stock

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) SVP Peter Underwood sold 48,442 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.60, for a total transaction of $3,129,353.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 79,118 shares in the company, valued at $5,111,022.80. This represents a 37.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Fortive Stock Up 2.4%

FTV traded up $1.53 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $66.77. 3,835,360 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,498,612. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.71. The company has a market cap of $20.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.07. Fortive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $49.03 and a fifty-two week high of $67.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 14.83% and a return on equity of 15.79%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th were issued a $0.07 dividend. This is an increase from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.33%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Fortive during the second quarter worth $1,626,463,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the second quarter worth $739,668,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the second quarter worth $527,526,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth about $211,807,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Fortive by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,205,043 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $175,668,000 after buying an additional 15,711 shares during the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Fortive from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird set a $75.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortive currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

Fortive Company Profile

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company that develops and provides products, software and services designed to improve the productivity, safety, reliability and efficiency of businesses and public-sector organizations. Its offerings support customers in industries including manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, transportation, commercial facilities and government.

The company’s portfolio includes electronic test and measurement equipment, calibration and asset-management solutions, workplace and facility-management software, engineering and infrastructure software, product identification and traceability systems, and healthcare technology.