Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Bought by Ethic Inc.

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. increased its holdings in Fortive Corporation by 11.9%, owning 62,354 shares valued at approximately $4.58 million.
• Recent analyst ratings show mixed sentiments, with Mizuho and JPMorgan lowering their target prices for Fortive to $65, while maintaining "outperform" and "overweight" ratings respectively.
• Fortive reported a missed earnings expectation for the last quarter, showing a revenue of $1.52 billion, down 0.4% year-over-year, and announced a share buyback program for 15.63 million shares.

Ethic Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 11.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 62,354 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,627 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Fortive were worth $4,583,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 164.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,730,161 shares of the technology company's stock worth $654,763,000 after buying an additional 5,429,566 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Fortive by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 42,947,135 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,221,036,000 after acquiring an additional 3,810,997 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Fortive by 96.6% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,626,962 shares of the technology company's stock worth $411,781,000 after acquiring an additional 2,764,432 shares during the last quarter. Third Point LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at about $142,500,000. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $136,794,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on FTV shares. Truist Financial reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $55.00 target price (down previously from $60.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen raised Fortive to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. Melius lowered shares of Fortive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $62.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Fortive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $50.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Fortive from $88.00 to $82.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.57.

Fortive Trading Up 3.6%

FTV stock traded up $1.7020 during trading on Friday, reaching $49.4620. 1,091,016 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,342,302. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.73 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The business's 50 day moving average price is $54.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.45. Fortive Corporation has a 52-week low of $46.34 and a 52-week high of $83.32.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.02). Fortive had a net margin of 13.62% and a return on equity of 11.96%. The business had revenue of $1.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.500-2.600 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 27th that allows the company to buyback 15,630,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Company Profile

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services in the United States, China, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software, and services, including electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and connected worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries.