Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.5385.

FTV has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective (up from $56.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total value of $416,022.54. Following the sale, the director owned 31,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,853,753.50. This trade represents a 18.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares in the company, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTV. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Quent Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fortive by 43.6% during 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 during the period. Main Street Group LTD purchased a new position in shares of Fortive during the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE FTV opened at $59.42 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $57.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.70. 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 stock has a market cap of $18.11 billion, a PE ratio of 35.58, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.09. Fortive has a 12 month low of $46.34 and a 12 month high of $73.81.

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

Fortive Dividend Announcement

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

Fortive announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Company Profile

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.