Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Receives “Underweight” Rating from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated their underweight rating on shares of Fortive (NYSE:FTV) in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $57.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $55.00.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on FTV. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Fortive in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Fortive from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Mizuho reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $51.00 price objective (down from $54.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Fortive from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortive has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $57.77.

Fortive Stock Down 0.9%

Fortive stock opened at $54.99 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $53.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.70. Fortive has a 52-week low of $46.34 and a 52-week high of $83.32. The firm has a market cap of $17.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.42, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.13.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The technology company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.10. Fortive had a net margin of 11.72% and a return on equity of 12.04%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.97 earnings per share. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.630-2.67 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Fortive will post 4.05 EPS for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 26th. Investors of record on Friday, November 28th were paid a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 28th. Fortive’s payout ratio is currently 13.71%.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In other Fortive news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 2,192 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $110,367.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 59,488 shares in the company, valued at $2,995,220.80. This represents a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.92% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTV. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Fortive by 97.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,706 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $428,000 after buying an additional 2,811 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 6.9% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Fortive by 246.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its holdings in Fortive by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 83,055 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,330,000 after acquiring an additional 4,687 shares during the period. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted its stake in Fortive by 103.8% in the 2nd quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 5,826 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 2,967 shares in the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fortive Company Profile

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.