Van Den Berg Management I Inc. Raises Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Van Den Berg Management I Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 22.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 63,238 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,799 shares during the period. Van Den Berg Management I Inc.’s holdings in Fortive were worth $3,496,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FTV. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Fortive by 56.8% in the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 19,690 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 7,135 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Fortive by 18.6% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,128,600 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $62,389,000 after purchasing an additional 177,300 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Fortive during the first quarter valued at about $11,854,000. Caxton Associates LLP increased its position in Fortive by 180.2% in the first quarter. Caxton Associates LLP now owns 56,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,118,000 after buying an additional 36,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cloverfields Capital Group LP increased its position in Fortive by 17.8% in the first quarter. Cloverfields Capital Group LP now owns 26,311 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,454,000 after buying an additional 3,981 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTV. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortive in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortive has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.00.

Fortive Price Performance

FTV stock opened at $62.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.50. Fortive Corporation has a one year low of $46.34 and a one year high of $64.33. The company has a market capitalization of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 37.36 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.37%.

Fortive declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

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