Argus Reiterates Hold Rating for Fortive (NYSE:FTV)

Fortive (NYSE:FTV)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Argus in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports.

FTV has been the topic of several other reports. StockNews.com raised Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Fortive in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho upgraded shares of Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a report on Friday, September 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Fortive from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Fortive from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortive presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.82.

Fortive Stock Performance

Shares of FTV stock opened at $74.50 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $75.62 and a 200-day moving average of $74.14. Fortive has a one year low of $66.15 and a one year high of $87.10. The stock has a market cap of $25.85 billion, a PE ratio of 29.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. Fortive had a net margin of 14.35% and a return on equity of 12.56%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Fortive will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Fortive news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of Fortive stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.58, for a total transaction of $382,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 48,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,702,336.68. The trade was a 9.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 6,864 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.03, for a total transaction of $508,141.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 73,391 shares in the company, valued at $5,433,135.73. The trade was a 8.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 197,895 shares of company stock valued at $14,261,051 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortive

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FTV. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in Fortive during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortive during the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Fortive during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Fortive in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Fortive in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. 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.