Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Given New $58.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) had its target price increased by Morgan Stanley from $53.00 to $58.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Robert W. Baird set a $65.00 price objective on Fortive in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Fortive in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Fortive from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.23.

Fortive Trading Down 1.8%

Fortive stock opened at $54.85 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $56.39 and a 200-day moving average of $53.04. Fortive has a one year low of $46.34 and a one year high of $76.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $16.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.10.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.07. Fortive had a return on equity of 11.98% and a net margin of 12.48%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.17 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Fortive will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.06 per share. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.87%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other news, Director Kate Mitchell sold 7,131 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.34, for a total value of $416,022.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 31,775 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,853,753.50. The trade was a 18.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Fortive by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 100,786 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,566,000 after buying an additional 16,033 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 5,421.0% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 240,164 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,326,000 after acquiring an additional 235,814 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Fortive by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,026,810 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $112,066,000 after acquiring an additional 133,447 shares during the last quarter. Storen Legacy Partners LLC acquired a new position in Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,020,000. Finally, Nolet Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortive during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $629,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

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.