Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $61.5385.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $61.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 target price on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, February 5th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total transaction of $416,022.54. Following the sale, the director directly owned 31,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,853,753.50. The trade was a 18.33% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Fortive by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Main Street Group LTD bought a new stake in shares of Fortive in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Fortive by 246.2% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV stock opened at $58.75 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $17.91 billion, a PE ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.79. Fortive has a 52 week low of $46.34 and a 52 week high of $73.77.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 12.84%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Fortive will post 2.96 EPS for the current year.

Fortive announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that allows the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.37%.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company headquartered in Everett, Washington. The company was created through a spin‑off from Danaher Corporation in 2016 and has since focused on building a portfolio of professional instrumentation and industrial technology businesses. In 2020 Fortive completed a further portfolio separation with the spin‑off of Vontier, concentrating Fortive’s activities on higher‑margin instrumentation, software and services.

Fortive’s operations center on professional test and measurement, sensing and monitoring, software‑enabled solutions, and lifecycle services that support industrial and commercial customers.