Argus Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Fortive (NYSE:FTV)

Fortive (NYSE:FTV)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Argus in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $68.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Argus’ target price indicates a potential upside of 13.32% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on FTV. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.10.

Fortive Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of FTV stock opened at $60.01 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.30. Fortive has a 12-month low of $46.54 and a 12-month high of $64.56. The firm has a market cap of $18.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41 and a beta of 1.06.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.33% and a net margin of 12.38%.Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortive will post 3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the 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 transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortive

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTV. Dodge & Cox raised its position in shares of Fortive by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,437,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,562,028 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Fortive during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,626,463,000. Viking Global Investors LP grew its position in Fortive by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,003,495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,571,056 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Fortive by 29.2% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 4,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE purchased a new position in Fortive in the second quarter worth about $739,668,000. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.