Groupe la Francaise Sells 18,733 Shares of Fortive Corporation $FTV

Groupe la Francaise decreased its holdings in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 15.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 103,826 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 18,733 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Fortive were worth $6,343,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Dodge & Cox boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,437,953,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,028 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Fortive by 3,895.4% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 27,805,114 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,698,614,000 after purchasing an additional 27,109,194 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Fortive during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,626,463,000. Viking Global Investors LP lifted its position in Fortive by 28.7% during the third quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,571,056 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Fortive by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,046,352 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,106,760,000 after purchasing an additional 4,532,031 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FTV. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and issued a $68.00 price target (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered Fortive from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 target price on shares of Fortive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.10.

Fortive Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of FTV stock opened at $56.97 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Fortive Corporation has a one year low of $47.01 and a one year high of $64.56. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.44. The company has a market capitalization of $17.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.71, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.05.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Fortive’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. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. 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 16.57%.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 79,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

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.