Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Price Target Raised to $59.00

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) had its target price raised by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $56.00 to $59.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

FTV has been the topic of a number of other reports. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $65.00 target price (up from $63.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Fortive from $65.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Fortive from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Mizuho set a $55.00 price target on shares of Fortive in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.36.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of Fortive stock opened at $65.09 on Thursday. Fortive has a 52 week low of $49.03 and a 52 week high of $67.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $57.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.65. The company has a market cap of $19.37 billion, a PE ratio of 31.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.07.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.07. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.79% and a net margin of 14.83%. The company had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.68 earnings per share. Fortive’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Fortive will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This is a positive change from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.33%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 8,662 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $4,872,877.62. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Fortive in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,626,463,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE purchased a new stake in shares of Fortive during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $739,668,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $527,526,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $211,807,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Fortive by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,205,043 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $175,668,000 after buying an additional 15,711 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company that develops and provides products, software and services designed to improve the productivity, safety, reliability and efficiency of businesses and public-sector organizations. Its offerings support customers in industries including manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, transportation, commercial facilities and government.

The company’s portfolio includes electronic test and measurement equipment, calibration and asset-management solutions, workplace and facility-management software, engineering and infrastructure software, product identification and traceability systems, and healthcare technology.