Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 364,372 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 14,343 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.11% of Fortive worth $17,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Fortive by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 741 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 20.4% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,612 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 273 shares during the period. CNB Bank increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 4.0% in the second quarter. CNB Bank now owns 7,596 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional raised its position in shares of Fortive by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 3,693 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. Finally, Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortive by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC now owns 10,500 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $547,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Fortive Stock Performance

NYSE:FTV opened at $60.15 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $19.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.77, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.12. Fortive Corporation has a 1 year low of $46.34 and a 1 year high of $83.32. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $51.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.07. Fortive had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 11.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FTV. Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 price objective on Fortive in a research note on Thursday. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $58.00 price target (up from $55.00) on shares of Fortive in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on Fortive from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $51.00 target price (down previously from $54.00) on shares of Fortive in a report on Monday, January 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.85.

Fortive Company Profile

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company headquartered in Everett, Washington. The company was created through a spin‑off from Danaher Corporation in 2016 and has since focused on building a portfolio of professional instrumentation and industrial technology businesses. In 2020 Fortive completed a further portfolio separation with the spin‑off of Vontier, concentrating Fortive’s activities on higher‑margin instrumentation, software and services.

Fortive’s operations center on professional test and measurement, sensing and monitoring, software‑enabled solutions, and lifecycle services that support industrial and commercial customers.