Railway Pension Investments Ltd Boosts Position in Fortive Corporation $FTV

Railway Pension Investments Ltd increased its position in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) by 55.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 604,400 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 215,700 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd owned 0.20% of Fortive worth $36,923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FTV. DV Equities LLC acquired a new position in Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Fortive by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Group LTD acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total transaction of $533,492.58. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 79,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,872,877.62. The trade was a 9.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on FTV shares. Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price on shares of Fortive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Fortive from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.10.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FTV opened at $58.86 on Tuesday. Fortive Corporation has a 12 month low of $46.54 and a 12 month high of $64.56. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company has a market cap of $17.78 billion, a PE ratio of 34.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. Fortive had a net margin of 12.38% and a return on equity of 15.33%. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. This is an increase from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.20%.

About Fortive

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.