YHB Investment Advisors Inc. Cuts Holdings in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 81,636 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,124 shares during the quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fortive were worth $6,104,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FTV. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its holdings in Fortive by 95,666.8% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 88,663,752 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,629,389,000 after acquiring an additional 88,571,169 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fortive by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,557,116 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,288,355,000 after purchasing an additional 989,883 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortive by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 30,824,840 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,101,329,000 after purchasing an additional 282,248 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 7.3% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,321,854 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,249,001,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248,629 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch AG increased its holdings in Fortive by 3.8% in the first quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 10,594,444 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $722,223,000 after buying an additional 389,746 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays decreased their price target on Fortive from $83.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 26th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Fortive from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Fortive from $70.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 26th. Seaport Res Ptn reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Fortive in a research report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $78.46.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FTV traded up $0.63 on Wednesday, reaching $67.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 126,063 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,009,186. Fortive Co. has a 52-week low of $62.70 and a 52-week high of $79.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.73 and a beta of 1.15. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $71.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 25th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.01). Fortive had a return on equity of 11.96% and a net margin of 13.77%. The company had revenue of $1.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fortive Co. will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Investors of record on Friday, November 24th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 22nd. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.02%.

Fortive Profile

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.