Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Now Covered by Analysts at UBS Group

UBS Group started coverage on shares of Fortive (NYSE:FTV) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $84.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

FTV has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Fortive from $90.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Fortive in a research note on Friday, September 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $89.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.82.

Fortive Price Performance

Shares of FTV opened at $74.82 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.13. Fortive has a twelve month low of $66.15 and a twelve month high of $87.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a 50 day moving average of $75.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.18.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 12.56%. Fortive’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Fortive will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Fortive’s payout ratio is 12.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In other news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 171,808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.71, for a total transaction of $12,320,351.68. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,058,503.21. The trade was a 80.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jonathan L. Schwarz sold 14,223 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.80, for a total transaction of $1,049,657.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,281.80. This represents a 17.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 197,895 shares of company stock valued at $14,261,051. Corporate insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake in Fortive by 14,635.7% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,000,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $315,720,000 after acquiring an additional 3,972,855 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Fortive by 47.1% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,244,117 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $537,119,000 after purchasing an additional 1,999,792 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in Fortive by 1,005.9% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,937,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $152,899,000 after buying an additional 1,761,983 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its position in Fortive by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,463,772 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $554,253,000 after buying an additional 1,045,245 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in Fortive by 1,014.1% in the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 924,671 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $72,984,000 after buying an additional 841,671 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.