In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among hedge fund investors have historically outperformed the market after adjusting for known risk attributes. It’s not surprising given that hedge funds have access to better information and more resources to predict the winners in the stock market.
Is FTV a good stock to buy? Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) shareholders have witnessed an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late. Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) was in 32 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The all time high for this statistic is 46. Our calculations also showed that FTV isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings).
Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group
At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind we’re going to take a look at the fresh hedge fund action encompassing Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV).
Do Hedge Funds Think FTV Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?
At the end of September, a total of 32 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 3% from the previous quarter. On the other hand, there were a total of 34 hedge funds with a bullish position in FTV a year ago. So, let’s check out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
More specifically, Viking Global was the largest shareholder of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV), with a stake worth $762.7 million reported as of the end of September. Trailing Viking Global was Select Equity Group, which amassed a stake valued at $264.6 million. Adage Capital Management, D1 Capital Partners, and Citadel Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Cartenna Capital allocated the biggest weight to Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV), around 4.05% of its 13F portfolio. Shellback Capital is also relatively very bullish on the stock, setting aside 2.17 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to FTV.
With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key hedge funds were leading the bulls’ herd. Interval Partners, managed by Gregg Moskowitz, created the most valuable position in Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV). Interval Partners had $12.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Peter Avellone’s Cartenna Capital also made a $10.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Marc Lisker, Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan’s MSDC Management, Till Bechtolsheimer’s Arosa Capital Management, and Robert Vincent McHugh’s Jade Capital Advisors.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV). We will take a look at Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O), Coca-Cola European Partners plc (NYSE:CCEP), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (NYSE:TLK), Toast Inc. (NYSE:TOST), CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDW), Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR), and Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble FTV’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| O | 22 | 275031 | -1 |
| CCEP | 32 | 1192664 | 1 |
| TLK | 4 | 170252 | -1 |
| TOST | 38 | 567350 | 38 |
| CDW | 37 | 1906004 | 10 |
| AVTR | 53 | 2439815 | 9 |
| RYAAY | 15 | 411390 | 0 |
| Average | 28.7 | 994644 | 8 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 28.7 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $995 million. That figure was $2130 million in FTV’s case. Avantor, Inc. (NYSE:AVTR) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (NYSE:TLK) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for FTV is 55.4. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and beat the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately FTV wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on FTV were disappointed as the stock returned 4.8% since the end of September (through 11/30) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.
Follow Fortive Corp (NYSE:FTV)
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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
