Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Sold by Middleton & Co. Inc. MA

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA cut its holdings in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 29.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 84,080 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 34,323 shares during the period. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Fortive were worth $4,642,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Washington Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Fortive by 89.5% in the fourth quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,540 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $913,000 after purchasing an additional 7,810 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Fortive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $210,000. UBS Group AG lifted its position in Fortive by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,863,651 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $378,942,000 after purchasing an additional 632,759 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in Fortive by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 12,126 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $669,000 after purchasing an additional 1,935 shares during the period. Finally, Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich acquired a new stake in Fortive in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,255,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTV opened at $61.09 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $57.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Fortive Corporation has a 12-month low of $46.34 and a 12-month high of $74.67. The company has a market cap of $18.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.07. Fortive had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 11.98%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 2.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Fortive’s payout ratio is 13.87%.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In other Fortive news, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total transaction of $416,022.54. Following the sale, the director directly owned 31,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,853,753.50. The trade was a 18.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.92% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on FTV. Citigroup upped their target price on Fortive from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Fortive from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Fortive from $65.00 to $58.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Fortive from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Fortive from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $60.00.

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.