Peter C. Underwood Sells 5,000 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) Stock

Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.58, for a total transaction of $382,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 48,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,702,336.68. This trade represents a 9.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Fortive Stock Performance

Fortive stock opened at $75.62 on Friday. Fortive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $66.15 and a fifty-two week high of $87.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $74.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market cap of $26.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.13, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.13.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.55 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.56% and a net margin of 14.35%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Fortive Co. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Fortive’s payout ratio is 12.75%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in Fortive in the third quarter worth $25,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fortive during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Fortive in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortive during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on FTV. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Fortive in a report on Friday, September 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $89.00 target price for the company. UBS Group initiated coverage on Fortive in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho upgraded shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortive presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.82.

About Fortive

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.