Insider Selling: Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) CFO Sells 6,864 Shares of Stock

Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 6,864 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.03, for a total value of $508,141.92. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 73,391 shares in the company, valued at $5,433,135.73. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Fortive Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:FTV traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $73.72. 1,511,544 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,848,129. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Fortive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $63.05 and a fifty-two week high of $87.10. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.14, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.11.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 14.39% and a return on equity of 12.32%. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortive Co. will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.65%.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,724 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Lipe & Dalton increased its stake in Fortive by 1.9% in the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 7,096 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $610,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. RDA Financial Network raised its holdings in shares of Fortive by 3.4% during the second quarter. RDA Financial Network now owns 4,191 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 11,170 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $961,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,507 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,371,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FTV. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $77.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a research note on Friday, September 6th. TD Cowen raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Wolfe Research cut Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Fortive from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.23.

Fortive Company 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.