Swiss National Bank Acquires 65,600 Shares of Fortive Corporation $FTV

Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 7.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 992,800 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Fortive were worth $54,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dodge & Cox increased its holdings in Fortive by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,437,953,000 after purchasing 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 third quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,571,056 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 29.2% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 4,532,031 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $491,928,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortive by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,787,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $483,327,000 after buying an additional 116,939 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV opened at $60.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $60.69 and a 200 day moving average of $58.40. The company has a market capitalization of $18.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.33 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive Corporation has a 12 month low of $46.34 and a 12 month high of $64.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Investors of record on Monday, June 22nd were issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 22nd. Fortive’s payout ratio is 14.37%.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on FTV shares. Argus raised Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were 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 approximately $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

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.