Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Sector Perform Rating for Fortive (NYSE:FTV)

Fortive (NYSE:FTV)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $77.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price points to a potential upside of 5.77% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research cut Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded Fortive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James raised Fortive from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday. Barclays reduced their price target on Fortive from $93.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Fortive in a research report on Friday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $89.00 price target for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortive currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.00.

Fortive Price Performance

NYSE FTV opened at $72.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.63 billion, a PE ratio of 28.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $72.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.10. Fortive has a 12-month low of $63.05 and a 12-month high of $87.10.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. Fortive had a net margin of 14.39% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Fortive will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTV. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Fortive by 13.1% in the 4th 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 during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Fortive by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,463,772 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $554,253,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045,245 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Fortive by 47.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,244,117 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $537,119,000 after purchasing an additional 1,999,792 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Fortive by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,847,724 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $430,568,000 after purchasing an additional 33,990 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Fortive in the 4th quarter worth about $268,686,000. 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.