Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys 4,224 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV – Get Rating) by 77.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,701 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,224 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Fortive were worth $566,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the 1st quarter valued at $66,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Fortive by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,124,090 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $129,421,000 after purchasing an additional 127,093 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 123.0% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 19,004 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,158,000 after buying an additional 10,481 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its position in Fortive by 11.7% during the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 21,144 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,288,000 after buying an additional 2,217 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Fortive by 5.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,693,658 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $103,217,000 after buying an additional 84,238 shares during the last quarter. 94.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 13,156 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on Friday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.44, for a total transaction of $900,396.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,818 shares in the company, valued at $6,078,703.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 13,156 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.44, for a total value of $900,396.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 88,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,078,703.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Patrick K. Murphy sold 32,788 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.56, for a total value of $2,247,945.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 62,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,314,412.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.79% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on FTV. Credit Suisse Group reduced their price objective on Fortive from $79.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Fortive from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Fortive from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 13th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Fortive from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.85.

Fortive Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:FTV opened at $65.45 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $65.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Fortive Co. has a 12 month low of $52.47 and a 12 month high of $72.15. The company has a market cap of $23.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.27, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.12.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 26th. The technology company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.03. Fortive had a return on equity of 11.69% and a net margin of 12.22%. The company had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Fortive Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 30th were issued a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 29th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Fortive’s payout ratio is 14.66%.

Fortive Profile

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Fortive Corp. engages in the design, development, manufacturing, and marketing of professional and engineered products, software, and services for a variety of end markets. It operates through the following segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions.