Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) Short Interest Update

Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,200,000 shares, a growth of 16.1% from the August 15th total of 4,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,810,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Patrick K. Murphy sold 21,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.50, for a total value of $1,667,164.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 60,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,644,774. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Fortive news, CEO Patrick K. Murphy sold 21,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.50, for a total transaction of $1,667,164.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 60,716 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,644,774. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 16,911 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.66, for a total value of $1,296,397.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 101,319 shares in the company, valued at $7,767,114.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 43,404 shares of company stock worth $3,324,757 over the last three months. 0.95% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FTV. Simplicity Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Fortive during the first quarter valued at approximately $340,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Fortive by 1.5% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,690,395 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $183,404,000 after purchasing an additional 39,664 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in shares of Fortive by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,750 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares during the period. Credit Suisse AG lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Credit Suisse AG now owns 688,215 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,218,000 after buying an additional 37,903 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in Fortive by 14.2% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 162,540 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,872,000 after acquiring an additional 20,175 shares during the period. 95.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FTV has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Argus lifted their target price on Fortive from $80.00 to $85.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Mizuho increased their target price on Fortive from $63.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com started coverage on Fortive in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Fortive from $77.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.00.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of FTV stock traded down $1.04 on Tuesday, reaching $75.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 685,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,975,477. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $77.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Fortive has a 1 year low of $57.43 and a 1 year high of $79.90. The company has a market capitalization of $26.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.15.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.04. Fortive had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 13.39%. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Fortive will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.37%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st. Fortive’s payout ratio is 12.44%.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services worldwide. Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software and services, which includes electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries.