The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires 142,197 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 10.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,501,266 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 142,197 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 0.43% of Fortive worth $112,595,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Fortive by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 42,947,135 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $3,221,036,000 after purchasing an additional 3,810,997 shares in the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 11,903,240 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $892,743,000 after buying an additional 137,479 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Fortive by 164.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,730,161 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $654,763,000 after buying an additional 5,429,566 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Fortive by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,294,930 shares of the technology company's stock worth $620,480,000 after buying an additional 103,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its position in Fortive by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,904,282 shares of the technology company's stock worth $594,108,000 after buying an additional 166,123 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Fortive from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Fortive from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Fortive from $90.00 to $73.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays cut their price target on Fortive from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Fortive from $84.00 to $69.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $80.83.

Fortive Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of FTV stock traded up $0.81 on Friday, hitting $67.59. The stock had a trading volume of 5,613,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,408,498. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Fortive Co. has a twelve month low of $60.39 and a twelve month high of $83.32. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $71.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.17. The firm has a market cap of $22.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.64, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.10.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.85. Fortive had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 13.15%. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortive Co. will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Fortive's dividend payout ratio is presently 14.04%.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In other Fortive news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 5,688 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.52, for a total value of $457,997.76. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 47,141 shares in the company, valued at $3,795,793.32. This represents a 10.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 6,493 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.95, for a total value of $519,115.35. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,283 shares in the company, valued at $1,941,425.85. The trade was a 21.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 243,385 shares of company stock worth $19,508,529 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.01% of the company's stock.

Fortive Profile

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services in the United States, China, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software, and services, including electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and connected worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries.