Westpac Banking Corp Makes New $5.30 Million Investment in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Key Points

• Westpac Banking Corp opened a new position in Fortive during Q1, buying 95,884 shares valued at about $5.3 million.
• Several other institutional investors also increased their Fortive holdings, and hedge funds and institutions now own 94.94% of the company’s stock.
• Fortive reported solid quarterly results, with EPS of $0.70 beating estimates and revenue rising 7.7% year over year; the company also authorized a 20 million share buyback.

Westpac Banking Corp purchased a new position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 95,884 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $5,300,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FTV. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in 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 grew its position in Fortive by 6.9% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Fortive by 246.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 80,595 shares of the technology company's stock worth $4,201,000 after acquiring an additional 2,548 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FTV. Argus raised shares of Fortive from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $68.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortive from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.00.

Fortive Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of FTV opened at $60.68 on Wednesday. Fortive Corporation has a 1-year low of $46.34 and a 1-year 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. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $60.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.33 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. Fortive's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

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

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive's dividend payout ratio is currently 14.37%.

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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