Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Stake in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,888,051 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,341,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,387,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Fortive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,729,000. ABN Amro Investment Solutions purchased a new stake in Fortive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,229,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in Fortive by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,026,810 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $112,066,000 after acquiring an additional 133,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Fortive in the 1st quarter valued at $11,854,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Fortive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.10.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV stock opened at $59.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive Corporation has a one year low of $46.54 and a one year high of $64.56. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $61.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.47.

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

Fortive Increases Dividend

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

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total value of $533,492.58. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 79,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Company 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.