Fortive (NYSE:FTV) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.03 EPS

Fortive (NYSE:FTV) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The technology company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.03, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Fortive had a return on equity of 15.33% and a net margin of 12.38%.Fortive’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Fortive updated its FY 2026 guidance to 2.950-3.050 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Fortive’s conference call:

• Fortive raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $2.95–$3.05 and increased expected core revenue growth to approximately 4%, up from 2%–3% previously.
• Q2 delivered strong results, including 6.7% core revenue growth, 12% adjusted EBITDA growth, 28% adjusted EPS growth, and 29.5% adjusted EBITDA margins. Free cash flow was approximately $270 million, with trailing-12-month free cash flow exceeding $1 billion.
• Demand remained robust at Fluke, particularly in data centers, defense, APAC, and Latin America, while new products such as CertiFiber Max and AI-enabled software are contributing to growth. Healthcare consumables, services, and software also grew broadly, and capital equipment returned to growth.
• Fortive repurchased roughly $200 million of shares in Q2, bringing repurchases since the New Fortive launch to approximately 38 million shares, or 11% of shares outstanding. The company also acquired a majority stake in UV Smart to expand ASP’s disinfection portfolio.
• Gross margins declined about 100–110 basis points in both segments due primarily to unfavorable product mix and strategic growth investments. Management expects Q3 margins to be slightly below Q2 levels, while Q4 revenue and core growth will face a headwind from four fewer selling days.

Fortive Price Performance

NYSE:FTV traded up $0.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $59.29. 1,134,005 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,420,392. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Fortive has a 1 year low of $46.34 and a 1 year high of $64.56. The company has a market cap of $17.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.08 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $61.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.71.

Fortive Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 22nd. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Fortive’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.37%.

Fortive announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback 20,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus upgraded Fortive from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Fortive from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Fortive from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Fortive from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Fortive from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.10.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Peter C. Underwood sold 47,557 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.81, for a total value of $2,891,941.17. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 87,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,337,901.80. This represents a 35.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.65% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FTV. Viking Global Investors LP increased its stake in Fortive by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 20,483,680 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,003,495,000 after buying an additional 4,571,056 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Fortive by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,046,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,106,760,000 after acquiring an additional 4,532,031 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortive by 205.6% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,719,200 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $182,204,000 after acquiring an additional 2,502,300 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Fortive by 70.0% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,626,871 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $310,809,000 after acquiring an additional 2,316,202 shares during the period. Finally, Dodge & Cox grew its position in shares of Fortive by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 44,157,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,437,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,562,028 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.94% of the company’s stock.

Fortive Company Profile

Fortive Corporation (NYSE: FTV) is a diversified industrial technology company headquartered in Everett, Washington. The company was created through a spin‑off from Danaher Corporation in 2016 and has since focused on building a portfolio of professional instrumentation and industrial technology businesses. In 2020 Fortive completed a further portfolio separation with the spin‑off of Vontier, concentrating Fortive’s activities on higher‑margin instrumentation, software and services.

Fortive’s operations center on professional test and measurement, sensing and monitoring, software‑enabled solutions, and lifecycle services that support industrial and commercial customers.