16,000 Shares in Fortive Corporation $FTV Bought by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 16,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $884,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FTV. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,437,953,000 after buying an additional 1,562,028 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after acquiring an additional 4,571,056 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 29.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,046,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,106,760,000 after acquiring an additional 4,532,031 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortive in the fourth quarter worth about $491,928,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Fortive by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,787,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $483,327,000 after acquiring an additional 116,939 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

Fortive stock opened at $62.70 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.55 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive Corporation has a 1-year low of $46.34 and a 1-year high of $63.40. The company’s 50-day moving average is $60.50 and its 200 day moving average is $57.87.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 6th. Investors of record on Monday, June 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s payout ratio is presently 14.37%.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Argus raised Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortive has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total value of $2,891,941.17. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 87,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.