Essex Financial Services Inc. Grows Stock Position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV)

Essex Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 18.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,171 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Fortive were worth $238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Fortive by 5.3% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,031 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $792,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Fortive by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,872 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $463,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. McCollum Christoferson Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortive by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. McCollum Christoferson Group LLC now owns 58,238 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,597,000 after purchasing an additional 1,440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive during the third quarter worth $537,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FTV has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup downgraded Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $92.00 to $86.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com cut Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Fortive in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Fortive from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.64.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of FTV opened at $81.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25. Fortive Co. has a fifty-two week low of $66.15 and a fifty-two week high of $87.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.57. The company has a market capitalization of $28.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.15.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.05. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.56% and a net margin of 14.35%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortive Co. will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. Fortive’s payout ratio is currently 12.75%.

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.