Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Fortive (NYSE:FTV) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $90.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $95.00.

FTV has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Fortive from $89.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Fortive from $79.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Truist Financial started coverage on Fortive in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a buy rating and a $99.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on Fortive from $90.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Vertical Research cut Fortive from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortive has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $86.54.

Fortive Trading Down 1.0 %

FTV stock opened at $80.20 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Fortive has a 12-month low of $62.70 and a 12-month high of $87.10. The stock has a market cap of $28.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.87, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50-day moving average is $84.52 and its 200 day moving average is $75.95.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The technology company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.05. Fortive had a return on equity of 12.12% and a net margin of 14.27%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. Fortive’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Fortive will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Fortive’s payout ratio is 13.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In other Fortive news, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 8,994 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.17, for a total value of $739,036.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 20,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,689,743.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Stacey A. Walker sold 9,106 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.50, for a total transaction of $787,669.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 36,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,162,267. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Christopher M. Mulhall sold 8,994 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.17, for a total value of $739,036.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,689,743.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,937 shares of company stock valued at $5,475,122 over the last quarter. 0.95% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FTV. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Fortive during the fourth quarter worth $268,686,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 61,103.3% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,600,591 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $231,338,000 after purchasing an additional 3,594,708 shares in the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 10,525,824 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $775,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200,729 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 2.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,557,116 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,288,355,000 after purchasing an additional 989,883 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fortive by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,577,474 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $557,929,000 after purchasing an additional 878,523 shares in the last quarter. 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.