Clarkston Capital Partners LLC Invests $25.93 Million in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Clarkston Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 328,520 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,930,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTV. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its holdings in Fortive by 14,635.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,000,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $315,720,000 after purchasing an additional 3,972,855 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Fortive by 47.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,244,117 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $537,119,000 after acquiring an additional 1,999,792 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in Fortive by 19.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,463,772 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $554,253,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045,245 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Fortive by 78.0% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 853,187 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $63,221,000 after acquiring an additional 373,957 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its position in Fortive by 1,053.5% in the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 382,707 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,359,000 after purchasing an additional 349,530 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortive news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.71, for a total transaction of $12,320,351.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,058,503.21. The trade was a 80.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.58, for a total value of $382,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 48,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,702,336.68. The trade was a 9.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 197,895 shares of company stock worth $14,261,051. Corporate insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTV. Wolfe Research downgraded Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Raymond James raised shares of Fortive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Fortive from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $90.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.82.

Fortive Trading Down 1.0 %

FTV opened at $74.82 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $75.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.16. Fortive Co. has a 12 month low of $66.15 and a 12 month high of $87.10.

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

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.75%.

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.