Fortive's chief accounting officer sold 26% of the stake in one day. No plan is marked.

The Spill

Christopher M. Mulhall, Fortive's vice president and chief accounting officer, exercised five option lots with exercise prices of $34.85 to $46.67 on Oct. 30 and sold shares the same day, with two of the lots and one of the sales on his spouse's line. The insider filing (Form 4) reached the SEC the next business day, and the household still reports 74,102.947 Fortive shares across four lines, including two 401(k) accounts.

Lag Clock

The form landed one business day after the trade, inside the two-business-day deadline (Rule 16a-3).

Signal Check

The 10b5-1 box is not checked and no footnote names a pre-set trading plan (10b5-1), so the two sales carry no plan marking, and that is all the label says.

What the filing shows

Seven rows, all dated Oct. 30: five option exercises (code M) delivering 18,431 shares at exercise prices of $34.85 to $46.67, $744,419.65 in all, and two open-market sales (code S) of 26,055 shares at weighted averages of $65.56 and $65.57, $1,708,246.73 together. The common stake before the trade was 100,157.947 shares; the 26,055 sold is 26% of that.

After the filing: 44,598 shares held directly, 15,597 by his spouse, 5,301.726 in a 401(k) and 8,606.221 in his spouse's 401(k). The two 401(k) counts come from a plan statement dated Oct. 31, 2026.

The five option lots are gone; each shows zero left after exercise. Their expiration dates ran from Feb. 23, 2027 to Feb. 22, 2028, and a footnote says the share counts and exercise prices were adjusted for the Vontier and Ralliant spin-offs.

The Other Side

A quarter of the stake sold in a day, with no plan marked, is the kind of line that gets screenshotted. The same day's exercises delivered 18,431 shares against the 26,055 sold, and the earliest of those option lots was due to expire Feb. 23, 2027.

What the filing can't settle is anything past that arithmetic. It records one direct sale and one spouse sale, each at a weighted average, and nothing about whether the sale was sized to the exercise or the exercise to the sale.

What it can't tell you

• Why Mulhall sold. The form does not say why, and it ties the sales to nothing on Fortive's calendar.
• The price of each lot. Both sales are reported at weighted averages. The footnotes give ranges of $65.480 to $65.650 and $65.541 to $65.610 and offer the lot-by-lot breakdown only on request.
• What options remain. The five exercised lots show zero left, and the form lists no other option line; it isn't a full inventory of what Mulhall still holds in options or unvested awards.

What to watch

The next Form 4 from Mulhall. The direct line now sits at 44,598 shares and the spouse line at 15,597; any further sale, a new grant (code A) or a tax-withholding entry (code F) would have to show up within two business days of the trade.

Original sources

• SEC Form 4, accession 0001791884-26-000011