Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Fortive Corporation has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from 18 research firms, with 13 hold ratings and 5 buy ratings given by analysts.
• The average one-year price target for Fortive's stock among analysts is $65.57, though several firms have recently lowered their price targets significantly.
• Fortive plans to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.06 per share, with a dividend yield of 0.5%, and has also announced a share buyback program for 15.63 million outstanding shares.

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eighteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $62.7857.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FTV. Truist Financial restated a "hold" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective (down previously from $60.00) on shares of Fortive in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. TD Cowen downgraded shares of Fortive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Fortive from $72.00 to $55.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Cowen downgraded shares of Fortive from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of Fortive stock traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $47.21. The company had a trading volume of 938,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,349,375. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $50.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.46. The stock has a market cap of $15.97 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Fortive has a 1-year low of $46.34 and a 1-year high of $83.32.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 11.96% and a net margin of 13.62%.The company's revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. Fortive has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.500-2.600 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortive will post 4.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 27th that allows the company to buyback 15,630,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Fortive Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 12th. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Fortive's payout ratio is currently 14.41%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 2.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,413,849 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,054,644,000 after acquiring an additional 839,321 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 51.5% during the second quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 33,173,605 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $1,729,340,000 after acquiring an additional 11,273,242 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 22.9% during the second quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 15,912,624 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $829,525,000 after acquiring an additional 2,962,502 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 0.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 14,157,168 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $738,013,000 after acquiring an additional 92,222 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Fortive by 50.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,112,403 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $959,567,000 after acquiring an additional 4,382,242 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.94% of the company's stock.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and services professional and engineered products, software, and services in the United States, China, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions. The Intelligent Operating Solutions segment provides advanced instrumentation, software, and services, including electrical test and measurement, facility and asset lifecycle software applications, and connected worker safety and compliance solutions for manufacturing, process industries, healthcare, utilities and power, communications and electronics, and other industries.