Fortive’s (FTV) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Argus

Argus reissued their buy rating on shares of Fortive (NYSE:FTV) in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Argus currently has a $68.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FTV. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.10.

Fortive Price Performance

NYSE:FTV opened at $60.14 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $61.16 and its 200 day moving average is $59.39. Fortive has a 12 month low of $46.54 and a 12 month high of $64.56. The company has a market capitalization of $18.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.33% and a net margin of 12.38%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortive will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This is a positive change from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.20%.

Fortive declared that its board has initiated 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 often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total value of $533,492.58. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 79,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,872,877.62. This represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Syon Capital LLC increased its holdings in Fortive by 61.1% during the second quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 8,579 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $524,000 after buying an additional 3,253 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd grew its stake in Fortive by 26.0% in the second quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 7,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $428,000 after purchasing an additional 1,446 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new position in Fortive in the second quarter worth about $7,454,000. Railway Pension Investments Ltd lifted its position in shares of Fortive by 55.5% during the second quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 604,400 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,923,000 after buying an additional 215,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Flputnam Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive during the second quarter valued at about $266,000. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

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.