Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 395,780 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 10,305 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Fortive worth $29,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,191,915 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $644,346,000 after purchasing an additional 46,704 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Fortive by 13.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 8,041,324 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $634,701,000 after acquiring an additional 977,428 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its position in Fortive by 14,635.7% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,000,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $315,720,000 after acquiring an additional 3,972,855 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Fortive by 3.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,444,205 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $271,851,000 after acquiring an additional 103,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Fortive by 1.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,964,789 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $155,081,000 after acquiring an additional 24,539 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on FTV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Fortive from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Fortive in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $89.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Seven investment 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.64.

Fortive Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of Fortive stock opened at $80.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 0.91. Fortive Co. has a 1 year low of $66.15 and a 1 year high of $87.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $78.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.13. The stock has a market cap of $27.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.91, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.15.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.05. Fortive had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 13.15%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortive Co. will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Fortive’s payout ratio is 13.56%.

Fortive Profile

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services in the United States, China, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software, and services, including electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and connected worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries.