Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday. The stock traded as high as $67.47 and last traded at $67.32, with a volume of 422,304 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $66.84.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTV has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Fortive from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Fortive in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Robert W. Baird set a $75.00 price target on Fortive in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Fortive from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Evercore initiated coverage on Fortive in a research report on Monday, September 28th. They set a “hold” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortive currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

Fortive Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.07, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The technology company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.79% and a net margin of 14.83%. Fortive’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Fortive Corporation will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fortive Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th were paid a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. This is a positive change from Fortive’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.33%.

Insider Activity at Fortive

In related news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 48,442 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.60, for a total transaction of $3,129,353.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 79,118 shares in the company, valued at $5,111,022.80. The trade was a 37.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Christopher Mulhall sold 8,093 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.57, for a total transaction of $530,658.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 15,597 shares in the company, valued at $1,022,695.29. The trade was a 34.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 83,159 shares of company stock worth $5,371,093 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FTV. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,626,463,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth $739,668,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth $527,526,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in Fortive during the second quarter valued at about $211,807,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in Fortive by 0.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 3,205,043 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $175,668,000 after purchasing an additional 15,711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

About Fortive

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company that develops and provides products, software and services designed to improve the productivity, safety, reliability and efficiency of businesses and public-sector organizations. Its offerings support customers in industries including manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, transportation, commercial facilities and government.

The company’s portfolio includes electronic test and measurement equipment, calibration and asset-management solutions, workplace and facility-management software, engineering and infrastructure software, product identification and traceability systems, and healthcare technology.