Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) Shares Sold by Avantax Advisory Services Inc.

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV - Free Report) by 31.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,559 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 3,961 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Fortive were worth $642,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Fortive by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,704 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $803,000 after purchasing an additional 876 shares in the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its position in shares of Fortive by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 584,627 shares of the technology company's stock worth $43,847,000 after purchasing an additional 14,683 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in Fortive by 57.5% in the 4th quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 4,791 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $359,000 after buying an additional 1,749 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Fortive in the 4th quarter worth about $17,750,000. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Fortive by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,785,483 shares of the technology company's stock worth $137,036,000 after buying an additional 326,652 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on FTV shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Fortive from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Fortive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Fortive from $95.00 to $90.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target 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. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Fortive from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $92.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $87.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 32,085 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.86, for a total transaction of $2,530,223.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 76,126 shares in the company, valued at $6,003,296.36. This trade represents a 29.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 6,493 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.95, for a total value of $519,115.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,941,425.85. The trade was a 21.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 243,385 shares of company stock valued at $19,508,529 over the last 90 days. 1.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Fortive Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:FTV traded up $0.05 on Tuesday, hitting $75.96. The stock had a trading volume of 1,889,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,138,428. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $78.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $76.92. The stock has a market cap of $25.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.19, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Fortive Co. has a 1-year low of $66.15 and a 1-year high of $86.21.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.05. Fortive had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 13.36%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Fortive Co. will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Fortive's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.56%.

Fortive Company 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.