Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Earns Buy Rating from Argus

Fortive (NYSE:FTV)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Argus in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $68.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Argus’ price target indicates a potential upside of 13.32% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Fortive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective (up from $67.00) on shares of Fortive in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Fortive from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortive currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.10.

Fortive Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE FTV opened at $60.01 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.41 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Fortive has a one year low of $46.54 and a one year high of $64.56.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The technology company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.050 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fortive will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.59, for a total transaction of $533,492.58. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 79,118 shares in the company, valued at $4,872,877.62. This represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Virtus Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Fortive in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Fortive during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in Fortive by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Group LTD purchased a new position in Fortive in the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.