Westpac Banking Corp Buys New Stake in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Key Points

• Westpac Banking Corp acquired 93,199 Fortive shares worth approximately $5.7 million in the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 94.94% of Fortive’s outstanding stock.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating on FTV, with an average price target of $63.10; individual targets range from $64 to $68.
• Fortive exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, raised its quarterly dividend from $0.06 to $0.07 per share, and authorized a buyback of up to 20 million shares.

Westpac Banking Corp bought a new stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 93,199 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $5,694,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive in the second quarter valued at $1,626,463,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE purchased a new stake in Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth about $739,668,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Fortive in the 4th quarter valued at about $491,928,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in Fortive by 102,687.8% in the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,487,060 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $413,361,000 after purchasing an additional 7,479,776 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP raised its stake in Fortive by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,571,056 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on FTV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Fortive from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Truist Financial restated a "hold" rating and set a $68.00 target price (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.10.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total value of $533,492.58. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 79,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. The trade was a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company's stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

Fortive stock opened at $60.14 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $61.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.39. Fortive Corporation has a 52 week low of $46.54 and a 52 week high of $64.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.59, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

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

Fortive Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a $0.07 dividend. This is a boost from Fortive's previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Fortive's dividend payout ratio is 14.20%.

Fortive declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Fortive

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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