USS Investment Management Ltd Boosts Stake in Fortive Corporation $FTV

USS Investment Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 17.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,500 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,580 shares during the quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Fortive were worth $4,782,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Root Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortive by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortive by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 1,113 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of Fortive by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Fortive by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 8,401 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $464,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the period. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC raised its position in shares of Fortive by 29.8% during the 4th quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 953 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on FTV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research downgraded Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortive in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Argus raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortive currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.83.

Fortive Trading Up 1.5%

FTV opened at $62.70 on Friday. Fortive Corporation has a 52 week low of $46.34 and a 52 week high of $63.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.81. The firm has a market cap of $19.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.55 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The company’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd will be given a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s payout ratio is currently 14.37%.

Fortive declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.