Paloma Partners Management Co Buys 46,910 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Paloma Partners Management Co boosted its stake in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 346.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 60,457 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 46,910 shares during the quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co’s holdings in Fortive were worth $4,772,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTV. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Fortive in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in Fortive in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Fortive in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortive by 71.0% during the third 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FTV. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Fortive in a report on Monday, November 18th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Fortive in a report on Friday, September 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $89.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Raymond James raised Fortive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.82.

Fortive Stock Down 0.1 %

Fortive stock opened at $79.33 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $27.52 billion, a PE ratio of 31.61, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.13. Fortive Co. has a 12-month low of $66.15 and a 12-month high of $87.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $76.23 and its 200 day moving average is $74.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortive Co. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Fortive’s payout ratio is 12.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In other news, SVP Jonathan L. Schwarz sold 14,223 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.80, for a total value of $1,049,657.40. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,281.80. This represents a 17.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.71, for a total value of $12,320,351.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 42,651 shares in the company, valued at $3,058,503.21. This represents a 80.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 197,895 shares of company stock valued at $14,261,051. Corporate insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

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.