Kentucky Retirement Systems Has $1.93 Million Holdings in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lessened its position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,407 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,121 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Fortive were worth $1,926,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 19.3% in the first 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 lifted its stake in Fortive by 47.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,244,117 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $537,119,000 after acquiring an additional 1,999,792 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Fortive by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,668,448 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $197,726,000 after acquiring an additional 205,893 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its stake in Fortive by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,641,314 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $195,721,000 after acquiring an additional 168,368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Fortive by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,565,443 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $190,099,000 after purchasing an additional 94,170 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on FTV. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Mizuho raised Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Fortive from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wolfe Research downgraded Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Fortive from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.82.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV opened at $74.82 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Fortive Co. has a one year low of $66.15 and a one year high of $87.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $75.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $74.16. The company has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a PE ratio of 29.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.13.

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

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.75%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other Fortive news, 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.58, for a total value of $382,900.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,702,336.68. This represents a 9.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,895 shares of company stock worth $14,261,051 in the last ninety days. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.