Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $654.76 Million Position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 164.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,730,161 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,429,566 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Fortive were worth $654,763,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dodge & Cox acquired a new position in shares of Fortive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $583,493,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortive during the fourth quarter worth $412,445,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at $136,794,000. Clean Energy Transition LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive in the 4th quarter valued at $58,829,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Fortive by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,695,319 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $127,149,000 after purchasing an additional 374,837 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Fortive from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Fortive from $90.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Fortive from $84.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $81.92.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of FTV stock opened at $68.93 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $72.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.57. The stock has a market cap of $23.46 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.12. Fortive Co. has a 52-week low of $60.39 and a 52-week high of $83.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.16.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.05. Fortive had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 13.36%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortive Co. will post 4.05 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.56%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other Fortive news, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 32,085 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.86, for a total value of $2,530,223.10. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,126 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,003,296.36. This trade represents a 29.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James A. Lico sold 196,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total transaction of $15,763,884.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 528,851 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,509,043.38. This trade represents a 27.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 243,385 shares of company stock worth $19,508,529 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Profile

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.