Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Reduces Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Key Points

• Middleton & Co. Inc. MA cut its stake in Fortive by 29.0% in Q4, selling 34,323 shares and leaving it with 84,080 shares valued at $4.642 million.
• Fortive beat quarterly expectations, reporting $0.90 EPS versus $0.83 expected and $1.12 billion in revenue, and issued FY2026 guidance of $2.90–$3.00 EPS.
• Analysts have an average target of $60 with a majority "Hold" consensus; institutional investors own 94.94% of the stock and Fortive pays a $0.06 quarterly dividend (about 0.4% yield).

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA decreased its stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 29.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 84,080 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 34,323 shares during the period. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA's holdings in Fortive were worth $4,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTV. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,811 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,548 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV stock opened at $61.09 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business has a 50 day moving average of $57.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.79. Fortive Corporation has a 52 week low of $46.34 and a 52 week high of $74.67. The company has a market cap of $18.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.31, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.07. Fortive had a return on equity of 11.98% and a net margin of 12.48%.The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Fortive's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive's payout ratio is currently 13.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on FTV shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Fortive from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Fortive from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Fortive from $65.00 to $58.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Fortive from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Fortive in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortive has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $60.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total transaction of $416,022.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 31,775 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,853,753.50. The trade was a 18.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.92% of the company's stock.

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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