Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Sold by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Key Points

• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its Fortive stake by 13.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 17,699 shares and leaving it with 110,930 shares worth about $6.1 million.
• Analysts are mixed on Fortive: the stock currently carries an average Hold rating, with an average price target of $61.54, though Argus recently upgraded it to Buy with a $68 target.
• Fortive reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $0.70 per share and revenue growth of 7.7% year over year, and the board also authorized a 20 million share buyback plan.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its holdings in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 13.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 110,930 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 17,699 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' holdings in Fortive were worth $6,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FTV. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in Fortive by 28.4% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP raised its stake 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 valued at $1,003,495,000 after buying an additional 4,571,056 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 55.2% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 205.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,719,200 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $182,204,000 after buying an additional 2,502,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 70.9% in the third quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 2,349,575 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $115,106,000 after buying an additional 974,485 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Truist Financial restated a "hold" rating and issued a $61.00 price target (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 target price on Fortive in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Argus raised Fortive from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $68.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Three 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.54.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the business's 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at $5,337,901.80. The trade was a 35.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortive Stock Up 0.0%

Fortive stock opened at $59.06 on Friday. Fortive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $46.34 and a fifty-two week high of $73.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $18.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.36, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.07.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The business had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

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

Fortive declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.