Handelsbanken Fonder AB Takes $7.21 Million Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Handelsbanken Fonder AB bought a new position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 118,062 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,212,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Fortive in the second quarter worth about $82,000. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the second quarter valued at $234,000. Czech National Bank lifted its position in Fortive by 1.7% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 86,775 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,301,000 after purchasing an additional 1,422 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Fortive by 17.5% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,935 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $240,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First County Bank CT purchased a new stake in Fortive during the second quarter valued at approximately $208,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FTV shares. Argus raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Citigroup lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Two equities 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.10.

Fortive Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of FTV stock opened at $61.56 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $61.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.59 billion, a PE ratio of 36.43 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive Corporation has a 1-year low of $46.54 and a 1-year high of $64.56.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 EPS 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 business had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.20%.

Fortive declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.