Middleby (NASDAQ:MIDD) versus Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Head to Head Survey

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

Volatility & Risk

Middleby has a beta of 1.32, meaning that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fortive has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Middleby and Fortive, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Middleby	2	1	6	0	2.44
Fortive	2	9	2	0	2.00

Middleby presently has a consensus target price of $159.50, suggesting a potential upside of 51.56%. Fortive has a consensus target price of $62.36, suggesting a potential upside of 10.39%. Given Middleby’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Middleby is more favorable than Fortive.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.5% of Middleby shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Fortive shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of Middleby shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Fortive shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Middleby	$3.20 billion	1.49	-$277.73 million	($9.26)	-11.37
Fortive	$4.16 billion	4.10	$579.20 million	$1.69	33.43

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Middleby	-13.22%	17.44%	7.66%
Fortive	12.38%	15.33%	8.23%

About Middleby

The Middleby Corporation designs, markets, manufactures, distributes, and services foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchen equipment worldwide. Its Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group segment offers conveyor, combi, convection, baking, proofing, deck, speed cooking, and hydrovection ovens; ranges, fryers, and rethermalizers; steam cooking, food warming, catering, induction cooking, and countertop cooking equipment; heated cabinets, charbroilers, ventless cooking systems, kitchen ventilation, toasters, griddles, charcoal grills, professional mixers, stainless steel fabrication, custom millwork, professional refrigerators, blast chillers, cold rooms, ice machines, and freezers; soft serve ice cream, coffee and beverage dispensing, home and professional craft brewing equipment; and fry dispensers, bottle filling and canning equipment, IoT solutions, and controls development and manufacturing. The company's Food Processing Equipment Group segment provides batch, baking, proofing, conveyor belt, and continuous processing ovens; frying and automated thermal processing systems; tumblers, massagers, grinders, slicers, reduction and emulsion systems, mixers, and blenders; battering, breading, and seeding equipment; water cutting systems, food presses, food suspension equipment, filling and depositing solutions, and forming equipment; and automated washing systems, auto-guided vehicles, food safety, food handling, freezing, and defrosting and packaging equipment. Its Residential Kitchen Equipment Group segment offers kitchen equipment comprising cookers, stoves, cooktops, microwaves, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, undercounter refrigeration, wine cellars, ice machines, beer dispensers, mixers, rotisseries, and ventilation and outdoor cooking equipment. The company was formerly known as Middleby Marshall Oven Company and changed its name to The Middleby Corporation in 1985. The company was founded in 1888 and is based in Elgin, Illinois.

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.