Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Bought by Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management dramatically increased its Fortive stake in Q4, adding 7.48 million shares and bringing its total holding to 7.49 million shares worth about $413.4 million.
• Fortive saw mixed insider activity, with SVP Peter C. Underwood and Director Kate Mitchell both selling shares; insiders now own just 0.65% of the company.
• The company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue growth, while also authorizing a 20 million-share buyback; analysts currently rate the stock a Hold on average with a consensus target price of $61.54.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 102,687.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,487,060 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,479,776 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. owned about 2.36% of Fortive worth $413,361,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 97.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,706 shares of the technology company's stock worth $428,000 after acquiring an additional 2,811 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 6.9% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the technology company's stock worth $484,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 246.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 87.9% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the technology company's stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 3.3% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 80,595 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,201,000 after acquiring an additional 2,548 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total value of $2,891,941.17. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 87,780 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total transaction of $416,022.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 31,775 shares in the company, valued at $1,853,753.50. This trade represents a 18.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FTV. Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $61.00 price target (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target 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. Argus upgraded shares of Fortive from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $68.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $61.54.

Fortive Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of FTV opened at $58.75 on Friday. 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's 50-day moving average is $58.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.79. Fortive Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.34 and a twelve month high of $73.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.09.

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. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Fortive Corporation will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Fortive's dividend payout ratio is 14.37%.

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.

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