Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Makes New Investment in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new stake in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 10,061 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $556,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 42,595,794 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,086,768,000 after purchasing an additional 9,422,189 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortive during the 4th quarter worth $491,928,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Fortive by 102,687.8% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,487,060 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $413,361,000 after buying an additional 7,479,776 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP increased its position in Fortive by 28.7% in the third quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,003,495,000 after buying an additional 4,571,056 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Fortive by 29.2% in 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. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. The trade was a 35.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective 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. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.83.

Fortive Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of FTV stock opened at $62.70 on Monday. Fortive Corporation has a 1 year low of $46.34 and a 1 year high of $63.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.12 billion, a PE ratio of 37.55 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $60.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.71.

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

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.37%.

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.