Fortive Co. (FTV) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.08 on June 27th

Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 3rd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share by the technology company on Friday, June 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th.

Fortive has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.6% per year over the last three years. Fortive has a dividend payout ratio of 7.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Fortive to earn $4.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.3%.

Fortive Stock Performance

NYSE FTV opened at $64.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.12, 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 has a twelve month low of $63.26 and a twelve month high of $84.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.84.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company posted $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortive will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 3,002 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.05, for a total transaction of $237,308.10. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,373 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,349,585.65. This represents a 6.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 6,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.95, for a total transaction of $519,115.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,283 shares in the company, valued at $1,941,425.85. This represents a 21.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 243,385 shares of company stock worth $19,508,529. 1.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Fortive stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Fortive Co. (NYSE:FTV) by 97.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,706 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 2,811 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Fortive were worth $428,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FTV. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Fortive from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Citigroup lowered 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 research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Fortive from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Fortive from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.18.

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.