Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 13,455 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 395,290 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 13,455 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Fortive were worth $29,291,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FTV. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Fortive by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,577,474 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $557,929,000 after acquiring an additional 878,523 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,463,772 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $554,253,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045,245 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Fortive by 47.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,244,117 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $537,119,000 after purchasing an additional 1,999,792 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Fortive by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,847,724 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $430,568,000 after purchasing an additional 33,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortive during the 4th quarter worth approximately $268,686,000. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Stock Up 0.9 %

FTV stock opened at $74.40 on Monday. Fortive Co. has a twelve month low of $63.05 and a twelve month high of $87.10. The company has a market cap of $26.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $72.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.33.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.01. Fortive had a net margin of 14.39% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Fortive Co. will post 3.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Fortive’s payout ratio is 12.65%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Fortive from $93.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Fortive from $84.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. TD Cowen raised Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $75.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. StockNews.com raised Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Fortive from $83.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.91.

Fortive 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.