Teacher Retirement System of Texas Grows Position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 42.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 108,514 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,402 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Fortive were worth $8,139,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Fortive by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,410 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in Fortive by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 43,593 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,441,000 after buying an additional 737 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Fortive by 349.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 4,974 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 3,867 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Fortive by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,964,789 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $155,081,000 after buying an additional 24,539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its position in Fortive by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 10,404 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $821,000 after buying an additional 468 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Fortive from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com lowered Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Fortive from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Fortive from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Fortive from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.64.

Fortive Stock Up 0.2 %

Fortive stock opened at $74.84 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $25.47 billion, a PE ratio of 31.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.16. Fortive Co. has a one year low of $66.15 and a one year high of $86.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $78.65 and a 200 day moving average of $76.86.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.05. Fortive had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 13.36%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortive Co. will post 4.05 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.56%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fortive news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 5,688 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.52, for a total value of $457,997.76. Following the completion of 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 32,085 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.86, for a total value of $2,530,223.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 76,126 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,003,296.36. The trade was a 29.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 243,385 shares of company stock worth $19,508,529 over the last quarter. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.