Renaissance Technologies LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Key Points

• Renaissance Technologies increased its Fortive stake by 18.6% in the first quarter, adding 177,300 shares to own 1.13 million shares valued at approximately $62.4 million. Institutional investors collectively hold 94.94% of Fortive’s stock.
• Analysts maintain a generally cautious view, with an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.00. Fortive shares recently opened at $62.39, near their 12-month high of $64.33.
• Fortive exceeded quarterly earnings expectations with EPS of $0.70 versus $0.64 expected and announced a 20-million-share repurchase authorization. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.06 per share, representing a 0.4% annualized yield.

Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 18.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,128,600 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 177,300 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.37% of Fortive worth $62,389,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FTV. Dodge & Cox increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,437,953,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,028 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP grew its holdings 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 worth $1,003,495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,571,056 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,046,352 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,106,760,000 after purchasing an additional 4,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $491,928,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,787,747 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $483,327,000 after purchasing an additional 116,939 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup upped their price target on Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Fortive from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Fortive in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Two investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $63.00.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV opened at $62.39 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.36 and a beta of 1.06. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $60.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.54. Fortive Corporation has a 12 month low of $46.34 and a 12 month high of $64.33. 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 (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. The company'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. Research analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 22nd. Fortive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.37%.

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

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at $5,337,901.80. The trade was a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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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