ProShare Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Fortive Corporation $FTV

ProShare Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 55.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 59,327 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 73,055 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fortive were worth $3,275,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTV. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortive in the fourth quarter worth $265,000. North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new position in Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at about $643,000. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at about $210,000. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan boosted its position in Fortive by 35.8% in the fourth quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 6,824 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,332,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $61.00 price target (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.54.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTV opened at $59.22 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $18.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $58.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.14. Fortive Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $46.34 and a fifty-two week high of $73.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) 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 net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.37%.

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.