Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Downgraded to “Neutral” Rating by Citigroup

Citigroup lowered shares of Fortive (NYSE:FTV) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. Citigroup currently has $86.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $92.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on FTV. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Fortive in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $84.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Fortive from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Fortive in a research note on Friday, September 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $89.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Fortive from $85.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Fortive from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.73.

Fortive Price Performance

NYSE FTV opened at $78.48 on Monday. Fortive has a 1 year low of $66.15 and a 1 year high of $87.10. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $27.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.14.

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

Fortive Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 29th. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortive

In other Fortive news, CFO Charles E. Mclaughlin sold 6,864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.03, for a total value of $508,141.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 73,391 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,433,135.73. This trade represents a 8.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 48,346 shares in the company, valued at $3,702,336.68. This trade represents a 9.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 197,895 shares of company stock worth $14,261,051 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.01% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortive

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Fortive in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Fortive in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Fortive during the second quarter worth $30,000. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Fortive in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. increased its holdings in Fortive by 71.0% in the third quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 424 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. 94.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.