Westpac Banking Corp Buys New Holdings in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Westpac Banking Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 93,199 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,694,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortive in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortive by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Finally, Main Street Group LTD purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTV has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target 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. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $68.00 target price (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.10.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of Fortive 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 $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FTV opened at $60.14 on Friday. Fortive Corporation has a 1-year low of $46.54 and a 1-year high of $64.56. The business has a 50-day moving average of $61.16 and a 200-day moving average of $59.39. 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 company has a market capitalization of $18.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.59, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.33% and a net margin of 12.38%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is 14.20%.

Fortive announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.