Citigroup Trims Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Target Price to $98.00

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) had its target price lowered by Citigroup from $101.00 to $98.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

FTV has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Fortive from $89.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Fortive from $93.00 to $83.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Fortive from $92.00 to $84.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Fortive from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Fortive from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $86.46.

Fortive Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of FTV opened at $75.97 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.13. Fortive has a one year low of $62.77 and a one year high of $87.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $83.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.13.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The technology company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.04. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.22% and a net margin of 14.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fortive will post 3.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 12.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 8,994 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.17, for a total value of $739,036.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,689,743.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 8,994 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.17, for a total value of $739,036.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,689,743.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 9,106 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.50, for a total value of $787,669.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 36,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,162,267. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 63,937 shares of company stock valued at $5,475,122 in the last three months. 0.95% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortive

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Fortive by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,092,535 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,415,902,000 after purchasing an additional 181,948 shares in the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG boosted its stake in Fortive by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 11,107,878 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $817,873,000 after purchasing an additional 512,414 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Fortive by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,577,474 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $557,929,000 after purchasing an additional 878,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Fortive by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,847,724 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $430,568,000 after purchasing an additional 33,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Fortive by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,886,914 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,254,000 after purchasing an additional 85,560 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.