Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Price Target Cut to $81.00 by Analysts at Truist Financial

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) had its price target lowered by Truist Financial from $90.00 to $81.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $77.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Fortive from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Fortive from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $92.00 to $86.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.33.

Fortive Stock Performance

NYSE:FTV opened at $63.69 on Tuesday. Fortive has a twelve month low of $60.39 and a twelve month high of $84.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.99, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.12. 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $75.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.37.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 7th. The technology company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.05. Fortive had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 13.36%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fortive will post 4.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.56%.

Insider Activity

In other Fortive news, CEO James A. Lico sold 196,117 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total value of $15,763,884.46. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 528,851 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,509,043.38. This trade represents a 27.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 3,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.05, for a total transaction of $237,308.10. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 42,373 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,349,585.65. This represents a 6.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 243,385 shares of company stock valued at $19,508,529. Company insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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. Flossbach Von Storch SE grew its holdings in Fortive by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 11,903,240 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $892,743,000 after buying an additional 137,479 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Fortive by 164.5% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 5,429,566 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortive by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,294,930 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $620,480,000 after acquiring an additional 103,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its position in Fortive by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,904,282 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $594,108,000 after acquiring an additional 166,123 shares during the period. 94.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.