KBC Group NV Raises Stock Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 1,081.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 977,590 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 894,856 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned about 0.32% of Fortive worth $54,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTV. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortive by 97.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,706 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $428,000 after acquiring an additional 2,811 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Fortive by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $484,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 grew its stake in Fortive by 87.9% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 1,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortive by 3.3% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 80,595 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,201,000 after purchasing an additional 2,548 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 87,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Fortive Stock Performance

FTV opened at $61.07 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.37. Fortive Corporation has a 52-week low of $46.34 and a 52-week high of $64.33. The company has a market cap of $18.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.57 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd 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 was Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s payout ratio is 14.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortive in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Citigroup increased their price target on Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.91.

Fortive Profile

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.