First Trust Advisors LP Grows Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Key Points

• First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Fortive by 559.7% in Q3 to 900,606 shares, now worth about $44.12 million.
• Fortive beat Q4 estimates, reporting $0.90 EPS vs. $0.83 expected and 4.7% revenue growth, and set FY2026 guidance of $2.90–$3.00 EPS; the company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.06 per share.
• Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares on Feb. 18 (avg. $58.34), while corporate insiders own 0.92% of the stock and institutional investors own 94.94%.

First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 559.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 900,606 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 764,082 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.28% of Fortive worth $44,121,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FTV. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Fortive by 208.8% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 32,938 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,614,000 after purchasing an additional 22,271 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 507,055 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $24,841,000 after purchasing an additional 62,127 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Fortive by 56.2% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 77,550 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,799,000 after purchasing an additional 27,908 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortive by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,413,849 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,054,644,000 after purchasing an additional 839,321 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in Fortive by 49.8% in the 3rd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 76,393 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,742,000 after purchasing an additional 25,397 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other news, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total transaction of $416,022.54. Following the transaction, the director owned 31,775 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,853,753.50. This represents a 18.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.92% of the company's stock.

Fortive Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of FTV opened at $56.31 on Thursday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $56.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.81. The company has a market cap of $17.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Fortive Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.34 and a twelve month high of $76.54.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.07. Fortive had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 11.98%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 4.05 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Fortive's payout ratio is 13.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FTV shares. Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Fortive from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Fortive from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $60.85.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FTV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.