Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Price Target Raised to $79.00

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) had its price objective boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $78.00 to $79.00 in a report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a sector perform rating on the technology company’s stock.

FTV has been the topic of several other research reports. BNP Paribas lowered Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Fortive from $90.00 to $81.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Fortive from $88.00 to $82.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $84.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.62.

Fortive Stock Down 1.9%

Fortive stock opened at $71.29 on Monday. Fortive has a twelve month low of $60.39 and a twelve month high of $83.32. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.11.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.85. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.49 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 13.36%. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fortive will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 27th that authorizes the company to repurchase 15,630,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.04%.

Insider Transactions at Fortive

In related news, CEO James A. Lico sold 175,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.40, for a total transaction of $12,670,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 428,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,029,554. This trade represents a 28.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 14,327 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.88, for a total value of $1,058,478.76. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,823,290. This represents a 21.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortive

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FTV. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in shares of Fortive by 181.5% during the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 21,900,363 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,602,669,000 after buying an additional 14,120,456 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Fortive in the fourth quarter valued at about $412,445,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Fortive by 164.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,730,161 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $654,763,000 after purchasing an additional 5,429,566 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Fortive by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 42,947,135 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,221,036,000 after purchasing an additional 3,810,997 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Fortive by 96.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,626,962 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $411,781,000 after purchasing an additional 2,764,432 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Company Profile

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.