EP Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Fortive Corporation $FTV

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 13,339 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $815,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Virtus Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Fortive by 246.2% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of Fortive stock opened at $60.14 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $18.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.43. Fortive Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.54 and a twelve month high of $64.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 12.38% and a return on equity of 15.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to repurchase 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This is a boost from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is 14.20%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total value of $533,492.58. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 79,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,872,877.62. The trade was a 9.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FTV has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.10.

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.