Fortive Corporation $FTV Shares Sold by Whittier Trust Co.

Key Points

• Whittier Trust Co. cut its Fortive stake by 80.2% in the first quarter, selling 232,321 shares and leaving it with 57,263 shares valued at about $3.25 million.
• Fortive reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $0.70 per share on revenue of $2.14 billion, and it also raised its FY 2026 EPS guidance to $2.90-$3.00.
• The company’s board authorized a 20 million-share buyback, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Hold with an average price target of $61.83.

Whittier Trust Co. lowered its holdings in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 80.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,263 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 232,321 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.'s holdings in Fortive were worth $3,247,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. DGS Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 1st quarter worth about $215,000. Ascentis Independent Advisors acquired a new position in Fortive in the first quarter valued at about $69,000. AdvisorShares Investments LLC purchased a new position in Fortive during the first quarter worth about $255,000. Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA purchased a new position in Fortive during the first quarter worth about $556,000. Finally, Praxis Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Fortive by 56.4% during the first quarter. Praxis Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,275 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,121,000 after acquiring an additional 7,314 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. This trade represents a 35.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company's stock.

Fortive Stock Down 1.0%

FTV traded down $0.64 on Tuesday, hitting $62.96. 190,801 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,493,742. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $60.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Fortive Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.34 and a twelve month high of $64.33. The company has a market cap of $19.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.69 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts' expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue 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, equities analysts predict that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were given a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive's dividend payout ratio is currently 14.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on FTV shares. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Fortive in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.83.

Fortive 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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