ST Germain D J Co. Inc. Grows Position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 253,207 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,607 shares during the period. ST Germain D J Co. Inc.’s holdings in Fortive were worth $18,991,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on FTV. Truist Financial increased their target price on Fortive from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Fortive from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $92.00 to $86.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Fortive Stock Down 2.0 %

FTV traded down $1.53 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $75.22. 559,719 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,938,249. Fortive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $66.15 and a fifty-two week high of $87.10. The company has a market cap of $26.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.97, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $74.64.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Fortive Co. will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

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

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.