Brokerages Set Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) Target Price at $63.10

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.10.

FTV has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $68.00 target price (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 downgraded Fortive from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total value of $533,492.58. Following 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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTV. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 3,895.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 27,805,114 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,698,614,000 after purchasing an additional 27,109,194 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortive during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,626,463,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE bought a new position in Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $739,668,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortive in the 4th quarter worth approximately $491,928,000. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $527,526,000. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fortive Stock Performance

FTV opened at $54.69 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $60.08 and its 200-day moving average is $59.37. Fortive has a 52-week low of $47.31 and a 52-week high of $64.56. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $16.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.05.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its 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 the consensus estimate of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 12.38% and a return on equity of 15.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. Analysts expect that Fortive will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This is an increase from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is 16.57%.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company that develops and provides essential products, software and services for customers in healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, commercial facilities and other professional markets. Its businesses focus on improving workplace productivity, safety, compliance, asset performance and operational efficiency.

Fortive’s portfolio has included brands such as Fluke, Tektronix, Industrial Scientific, Accruent, Gordian, Provation and ASP.