Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 7,030 Shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lessened its holdings in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 69.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,042 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 7,030 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Fortive were worth $240,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FTV. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Fortive by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,463,772 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $554,253,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045,245 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Fortive by 47.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,244,117 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $537,119,000 after buying an additional 1,999,792 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its holdings in Fortive by 14,635.7% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,000,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $315,720,000 after buying an additional 3,972,855 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Fortive by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,668,448 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $197,726,000 after acquiring an additional 205,893 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Fortive by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,641,314 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $195,721,000 after acquiring an additional 168,368 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 6,864 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.03, for a total transaction of $508,141.92. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 73,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,433,135.73. This represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.71, for a total value of $12,320,351.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 42,651 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,058,503.21. This trade represents a 80.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 197,895 shares of company stock valued at $14,261,051 in the last 90 days. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on FTV. Barclays lowered their target price on Fortive from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.82.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FTV opened at $78.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.13. Fortive Co. has a twelve month low of $66.15 and a twelve month high of $87.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a 50 day moving average of $75.85 and a 200 day moving average of $74.16.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.56% and a net margin of 14.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Fortive Co. will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.75%.

About Fortive

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.