Freestone Grove Partners LP Takes $17.07 Million Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Key Points

• Freestone Grove Partners purchased 279,467 Fortive shares worth approximately $17.07 million, representing about 0.09% of the company. Institutional investors collectively own 94.94% of Fortive.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $63.10, while Fortive recently reported quarterly EPS of $0.74 and revenue of $1.10 billion, both exceeding estimates.
• Fortive increased its quarterly dividend from $0.06 to $0.07 per share and authorized a buyback of up to 20 million shares; the stock recently traded near $59.93.

Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new stake in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 279,467 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $17,073,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP owned approximately 0.09% of Fortive as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Fortive by 43.6% during the fourth quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors increased its position in shares of Fortive by 2.1% in the first quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 9,047 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 1,113 shares of the technology company's stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,733 shares of the technology company's stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortive by 29.8% during the 4th quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 953 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Fortive from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Argus restated a "buy" rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $63.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total transaction of $533,492.58. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 79,118 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. This represents a 9.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.65% of the company's stock.

Fortive Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of FTV opened at $59.93 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $61.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.47. Fortive Corporation has a one year low of $46.54 and a one year high of $64.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.33% and a net margin of 12.38%.The company had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This is a boost from Fortive's previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Fortive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.20%.

Fortive declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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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