Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $63.00.

A number of research analysts have commented on FTV shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research cut Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of Fortive stock opened at $60.38 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.15 and a beta of 1.06. Fortive has a 12 month low of $46.34 and a 12 month high of $64.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during 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%. Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Fortive will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to buyback 20,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were issued a $0.06 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s payout ratio is presently 14.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,337,901.80. This trade represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortive

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Fortive during the 4th quarter worth $491,928,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 102,687.8% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 7,487,060 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $413,361,000 after acquiring an additional 7,479,776 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 28.7% in the third quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after acquiring an additional 4,571,056 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,046,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,106,760,000 after acquiring an additional 4,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Fortive by 205.6% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,719,200 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $182,204,000 after acquiring an additional 2,502,300 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.