Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Cuts Stock Holdings in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC reduced its stake in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 187,308 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 13,108 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned 0.05% of Fortive worth $14,048,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in Fortive by 14,635.7% during 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 buying an additional 3,972,855 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 1,005.9% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,937,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $152,899,000 after acquiring an additional 1,761,983 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 13.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 8,041,324 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $634,701,000 after purchasing an additional 977,428 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 1,014.1% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 924,671 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $72,984,000 after purchasing an additional 841,671 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Fortive by 59.3% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,359,069 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $107,271,000 after purchasing an additional 505,882 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group started coverage on Fortive in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Fortive from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup lowered shares of Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $92.00 to $86.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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, January 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Fortive has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.45.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV opened at $79.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $27.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $76.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.76. Fortive Co. has a 52 week low of $66.15 and a 52 week high of $87.10.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.56% and a net margin of 14.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fortive Co. will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 12.75%.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In other news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 42,651 shares in the company, valued at $3,058,503.21. The trade was a 80.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was 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 directly owns 48,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,702,336.68. This trade represents a 9.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

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.