Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Cuts Position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC lowered its position in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 10.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,701 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 533 shares during the quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Fortive were worth $353,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of FTV. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Fortive during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. boosted its position in Fortive by 71.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 424 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Fortive by 186.8% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 456 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Fortive in the second quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.58, for a total transaction of $382,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 48,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,702,336.68. This represents a 9.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.71, for a total value of $12,320,351.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,058,503.21. This trade represents a 80.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.01% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV stock opened at $76.80 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.60, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.14. Fortive Co. has a one year low of $66.15 and a one year high of $87.10. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25.

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

Fortive Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTV has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $90.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortive in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortive in a report on Monday, November 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.64.

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.