Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Acquired by Franklin Resources Inc.

Key Points

• Franklin Resources boosted its Fortive stake by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, buying 161,584 more shares and bringing its holdings to 2.16 million shares worth about $119.5 million.
• Other big investors also increased exposure to Fortive, and institutional ownership remains very high at 94.94% of shares outstanding.
• Analysts are mostly cautious on FTV: the stock’s consensus rating is Hold with an average price target of $61.62, while recent reports have nudged targets higher but kept ratings mixed.

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,164,389 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 161,584 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.68% of Fortive worth $119,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in Fortive by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 42,595,794 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,086,768,000 after buying an additional 9,422,189 shares during the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP grew its holdings in Fortive by 28.7% during 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 buying an additional 4,571,056 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortive during the 4th quarter valued at $491,928,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Fortive by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,787,747 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $483,327,000 after buying an additional 116,939 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in Fortive by 55.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 8,709,913 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $426,699,000 after buying an additional 3,096,711 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on FTV shares. Truist Financial restated a "hold" rating and set a $61.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a report on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. This trade represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company's stock.

Fortive Trading Down 4.3%

Shares of FTV opened at $60.05 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.96 and a beta of 1.06. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $59.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.98. Fortive Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.34 and a twelve month high of $73.13.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 6th. Investors of record on Monday, June 22nd will be paid a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 22nd. Fortive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.37%.

Fortive declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Fortive

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.

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