Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) Shares Acquired by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 3.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,410 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Fortive were worth $427,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Fortive in the 1st quarter valued at about $184,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortive during the first quarter worth $32,000. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC increased its stake in Fortive by 30.8% in the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 9,559 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $822,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the first quarter worth about $2,082,000. Finally, Interval Partners LP purchased a new position in Fortive during the 1st quarter worth $14,772,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortive Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of FTV stock opened at $78.42 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $75.85 and a 200-day moving average of $74.14. The stock has a market cap of $27.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.13. Fortive Co. has a 52-week low of $66.15 and a 52-week high of $87.10.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.56% and a net margin of 14.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortive Co. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In other news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.71, for a total transaction of $12,320,351.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,058,503.21. The trade was a 80.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.58, for a total transaction of $382,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 48,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,702,336.68. This trade represents a 9.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 197,895 shares of company stock valued at $14,261,051. Company insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Mizuho raised shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Raymond James raised shares of Fortive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.82.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services in the United States, China, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software, and services, including electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and connected worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries.