WINTON GROUP Ltd Makes New Investment in Fortive Corporation $FTV

WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 121,882 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,729,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FTV. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in shares of Fortive by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 42,595,794 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,086,768,000 after buying an additional 9,422,189 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP lifted its position in Fortive by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,003,495,000 after buying an additional 4,571,056 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Fortive during the 4th quarter worth about $491,928,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Fortive by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,787,747 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $483,327,000 after buying an additional 116,939 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its position in Fortive by 55.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 8,709,913 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $426,699,000 after buying an additional 3,096,711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total value of $2,891,941.17. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on FTV. Argus raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $61.00 price target (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.62.

Fortive Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of FTV opened at $61.30 on Friday. Fortive Corporation has a 52 week low of $46.34 and a 52 week high of $73.77. The firm has a market cap of $18.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The business had revenue of $2.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Fortive Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.