Reviewing Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) and Fortive (NYSE:FTV)

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) and Fortive (NYSE:FTV) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Itron and Fortive’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Itron	10.34%	19.65%	8.04%
Fortive	12.90%	13.19%	7.95%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Itron and Fortive”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Itron	$2.44 billion	2.51	$239.10 million	$5.48	24.55
Fortive	$6.23 billion	2.87	$832.90 million	$2.28	23.10

Fortive has higher revenue and earnings than Itron. Fortive is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Itron, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

96.2% of Itron shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Fortive shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Itron shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Fortive shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Itron has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fortive has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Itron and Fortive, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Itron	0	3	8	0	2.73
Fortive	0	7	7	0	2.50

Itron currently has a consensus price target of $128.18, indicating a potential downside of 4.73%. Fortive has a consensus price target of $73.67, indicating a potential upside of 39.89%. Given Fortive’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Fortive is more favorable than Itron.

Summary

Itron beats Fortive on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Itron

Itron, Inc., a technology, solutions, and service company, provides end-to-end solutions that help manage energy, water, and smart city operations worldwide. It operates in three segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment offers hardware products that are used for measurement, control, or sensing, such as standard gas, electricity, water, and communicating meters, as well as heat and allocation products. The Networked Solutions segment provides communicating devices, such as smart meters, modules, endpoints, and sensors; network infrastructure; and associated heat-end management and application software for acquiring and transporting application-specific data. This segment also offers industrial internet of things solutions. Including automated meter reading; advanced metering infrastructure for electricity, water, and gas; distributed energy resource management; smart grid and distribution automation; smart street lighting; and leak detection and applications for gas and water systems. The Outcomes segment provides value-added, enhanced software and services, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for managing, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data to enhance decision making, maximize operational profitability, resource efficiency, grid analytics, and deliver results for consumers, utilities, and smart cities. In addition, it offers implementation, project management, installation, consulting, and post-sale maintenance support services, as well as cloud and software-as-a-service; and extended or customer-specific warranties. The company offers its products and services under the Itron brand. It serves utility and smart city customers, and municipalities through its sales force, distributors, agents, partners, and meter manufacturer representatives. Itron, Inc. was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Liberty Lake, Washington.

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. This segment markets its products and services under the ACCRUENT, FLUKE, GORDIAN, INDUSTRIAL SCIENTIFIC, INTELEX, PRUFTECHNIK, and SERVICECHANNEL brands. The Precision Technologies segment offers electrical test and measurement, sensing and material technologies for industrial, power and energy, automotive, medical equipment, food and beverage, aerospace and defense, semiconductor, and other general industries under the ANDERSON-NEGELE, GEMS, SETRA, HENGSTLER-DYNAPAR, QUALITROL, PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC, KEITHLEY, and TEKTRONIX brand names. The Advanced Healthcare Solutions segment provides critical workflow solutions comprising instrument sterilization, instrument tracking, design and manufacture of cell therapy equipment, biomedical test tools, radiation detection and safety monitoring, and end-to-end clinical productivity software and solutions under the ASP, CENSIS, CENSITRAC, EVOTECH, FLUKE BIOMEDICAL, INVETECH, LANDAUER, PROVATION, RAYSAFE, and STERRAD brands. Fortive Corporation was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Everett, Washington.