Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Shares of Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $64.56 and last traded at $64.3450, with a volume of 471059 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $62.92.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on FTV shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fortive in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Fortive from $58.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortive currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.00.

Fortive Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $60.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.59. The firm has a market cap of $19.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.15 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The technology company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. Fortive had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 12.66%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Fortive has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.000 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Fortive Corporation will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.37%.

Fortive announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, May 4th that authorizes the company to repurchase 20,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total transaction of $2,891,941.17. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,337,901.80. This trade represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FTV. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Fortive by 97.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,706 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $428,000 after purchasing an additional 2,811 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Fortive by 6.9% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,619 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 430 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Fortive by 246.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 502 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fortive by 87.9% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 1,062 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Fortive by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 80,595 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,201,000 after buying an additional 2,548 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

About Fortive

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.