Stock Analysis | Fortive Outlook - Weak Technicals, Mixed Analysts, and Negative Money Flow

Market Snapshot

Fortive (FTV) is currently experiencing a weak technical profile, with no bullish indicators and five bearish signals, suggesting that investors should approach with caution. The stock has dropped by 1.66% recently, aligning with the negative technical outlook.

News Highlights

Recent headlines affecting Fortive include:

• Farm machinery industry eyes modest recovery – Sales in the Brazilian farm machinery sector have stabilized, with a 12% revenue increase from November 2024 to February 2025. While this isn't directly linked to Fortive, it hints at a potential rebound in the broader agricultural machinery market.
• Industry, govt must work on indigenous food processing machinery – Discussions in India highlight a reliance on imported food processing equipment. As a diversified industrial company, Fortive may benefit from a global push for domestic manufacturing in key sectors.
• US visa policy changes affecting students – These changes could have a ripple effect on the U.S. higher education and broader economy, but it's unclear how directly they would impact Fortive, which operates in the industrial and manufacturing space.

Analyst Views & Fundamentals

Fortive’s simple average analyst rating is 3.00, while the performance-weighted rating is 2.62. The ratings from analysts are mixed, with no strong consensus—both Barclays and Morgan Stanley have issued neutral ratings in the past 20 days.

Analysts include Julian Mitchell (Barclays) and Chris Snyder (Morgan Stanley). Both have a historical win rate of 50%, and while their recommendations are neutral, their past predictions have yielded varying returns. Morgan Stanley’s average return stands at 5.60%, while Barclays’ is much lower at 0.17%.

The stock’s recent price trend (-1.66%) aligns with the weighted analyst expectations, which are also neutral. However, the bearish technical signals suggest a potential disconnect between analyst sentiment and market momentum.

Key Fundamental Factors

• Net profit attributable to parent company shareholders (YoY growth rate): -15.90% – This metric has an internal diagnostic score of 3, indicating a moderate negative impact on the stock’s value.
• EV/EBIT: 61.12 – This factor carries a score of 2, signaling caution as the company’s enterprise value relative to its earnings is high.
• Basic earnings per share (YoY growth rate): -13.91% – A score of 1, highlighting the weak earnings growth.
• EV/EBIT: 61.12 – This factor carries a score of 2, signaling caution as the company’s enterprise value relative to its earnings is high.
• Net assets per share (growth rate compared to beginning of year): 2.80% – With a score of 2, this is a relatively minor positive indicator.

Money-Flow Trends

Fortive is experiencing a negative overall money-flow trend, with large, extra-large, and medium institutional inflow ratios all below 0.5. Specifically:

• Large inflow ratio: 0.427
• Medium inflow ratio: 0.438
• Extra-large inflow ratio: 0.383
• Overall inflow ratio: 0.408

Big-money investors are clearly underweighting the stock, and the fund-flow score is 7.58, which is labeled as “good” based on our internal system. However, this contradicts the weak technical and fundamental indicators. Fortive is also seeing negative trends across all retail and institutional investor categories, signaling a broad lack of confidence.

Key Technical Signals

Fortive’s technical profile is clearly bearish, with zero bullish indicators and five bearish ones. Here are the internal diagnostic scores (0-10) for the most recent indicators:

• WR Overbought – Score: 1.00 (strongly bearish)
• MACD Golden Cross – Score: 1.29 (neutral bias)
• Bearish Engulfing – Score: 1.92 (slightly bearish)
• Dividend Announcement Date – Score: 1.00 (strongly bearish)
• WR Oversold – Score: 3.26 (mildly bullish)

Recent indicators by date include:

• 2025-08-22: WR Overbought
• 2025-08-14: MACD Golden Cross
• 2025-08-28: Bearish Engulfing
• 2025-08-27: Dividend Announcement Date
• 2025-08-29: WR Oversold

Overall, the technical momentum is weak. Bearish signals are dominant (5 vs. 0 bullish), and recent indicators are scarce, suggesting the market is currently in a low-activity, bearish phase. Investors are advised to avoid Fortive based on these signals.

Conclusion

Fortive’s stock is currently facing a confluence of weak technical signals and declining fundamentals, with bearish indicators outnumbering bullish ones by a large margin. While analysts are neutral, the technical landscape suggests caution.

Actionable takeaway: Consider avoiding Fortive at this time. Monitor for a potential pull-back or a positive earnings report that may shift sentiment, but for now, the technical and fundamental indicators suggest a weak outlook.