Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Buys 720 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 139,928 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 720 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Fortive were worth $10,369,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FTV. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fortive in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Fortive during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 94.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortive Trading Up 1.2 %

Fortive stock opened at $73.40 on Friday. Fortive Co. has a one year low of $63.05 and a one year high of $87.10. The business’s fifty day moving average is $72.25 and its 200 day moving average is $76.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. Fortive had a net margin of 14.39% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fortive Co. will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.65%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on FTV shares. Barclays increased their price objective on Fortive from $91.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Fortive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $80.00 to $90.00 in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.