Fortive (NYSE:FTV) versus L.B. Foster (NASDAQ:FSTR) Critical Comparison

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) and L.B. Foster (NASDAQ:FSTR) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Fortive and L.B. Foster, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fortive	2	8	2	0	2.00
L.B. Foster	0	3	1	0	2.25

Fortive presently has a consensus price target of $63.10, suggesting a potential upside of 14.28%. L.B. Foster has a consensus price target of $32.00, suggesting a potential downside of 14.32%. Given Fortive’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fortive is more favorable than L.B. Foster.

Profitability

This table compares Fortive and L.B. Foster’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fortive	12.38%	15.33%	8.23%
L.B. Foster	2.04%	7.61%	4.03%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.9% of Fortive shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.6% of L.B. Foster shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Fortive shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of L.B. Foster shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Fortive and L.B. Foster”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fortive	$4.16 billion	4.01	$579.20 million	$1.69	32.67
L.B. Foster	$540.01 million	0.73	$7.55 million	$1.05	35.57

Fortive has higher revenue and earnings than L.B. Foster. Fortive is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than L.B. Foster, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Fortive has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, L.B. Foster has a beta of 1.15, meaning that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Fortive beats L.B. Foster on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services in the United States, China, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software, and services, including electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and connected worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries. This segment markets its products and services under the ACCRUENT, FLUKE, GORDIAN, INDUSTRIAL SCIENTIFIC, INTELEX, PRUFTECHNIK, and SERVICECHANNEL brands. The Precision Technologies segment offers electrical test and measurement, sensing and material technologies for industrial, power and energy, automotive, medical equipment, food and beverage, aerospace and defense, semiconductor, and other general industries under the ANDERSON-NEGELE, GEMS, SETRA, HENGSTLER-DYNAPAR, QUALITROL, PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC, KEITHLEY, and TEKTRONIX brand names. The Advanced Healthcare Solutions segment provides critical workflow solutions comprising instrument sterilization, instrument tracking, design and manufacture of cell therapy equipment, biomedical test tools, radiation detection and safety monitoring, and end-to-end clinical productivity software and solutions under the ASP, CENSIS, CENSITRAC, EVOTECH, FLUKE BIOMEDICAL, INVETECH, LANDAUER, PROVATION, RAYSAFE, and STERRAD brands. Fortive Corporation was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Everett, Washington.

About L.B. Foster

L.B. Foster Company provides engineered and manufactured products and services for the building and infrastructure projects in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Rail, Technologies, and Services; and Infrastructure Solutions. The Rail, Technologies, and Services segment offers new rail to passenger and short line freight railroads, industrial companies, and rail contractors, as well as used rails; rail accessories, such as rack spikes, bolts, angle bars, tie plates, and other products; insulated rail joints and related accessories; fixation fasteners, coverboards, and special accessories; and trackwork products. This segment also provides engineered concrete railroad ties, friction management products and application systems, railroad condition monitoring systems and equipment including wheel impact load detection systems, wayside data collection and management systems, and rockfall, flood, earthworks, and bridge strike monitoring; and aftermarket services. The Infrastructure Solutions segment manufactures precast concrete products for use as restrooms, concession stands, and protective storage buildings under the CXT brand for national, state, and municipal parks; and manufactures sounds walls, bridge beams, box culverts, septic tanks, and other custom pre-stressed and precast concrete products. This segment also provides steel bridge products; corrosion protection solutions; concrete-reinforced steel grid decking, open steel grid deck, aluminum bridge railing, and stay-in-place steel bridge forms; cuts, threads, and paints pipe; threading services for water well applications; protective pipeline coating services; and turnkey solutions for metering and injection systems for oil and gas markets. L.B. Foster Company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.