Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortive (NYSE:FTV) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on FTV. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Fortive from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Fortive from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Fortive in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Fortive from $65.00 to $58.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.00.

Fortive Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:FTV opened at $61.12 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.71. Fortive has a 52-week low of $46.34 and a 52-week high of $74.67. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.64. The firm has a market cap of $18.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.33, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 1.09.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.07. Fortive had a return on equity of 11.98% and a net margin of 12.48%.The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fortive will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.87%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In other Fortive 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 transaction of $416,022.54. Following the transaction, the director owned 31,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,853,753.50. This trade represents a 18.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.92% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in Fortive by 3.7% in the fourth 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. Viking Global Investors LP raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,003,495,000 after purchasing an additional 4,571,056 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,106,760,000 after purchasing an additional 4,532,031 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fortive in the 4th quarter worth about $491,928,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Fortive by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,787,747 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $483,327,000 after buying an additional 116,939 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.