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Fortive

FTV on NYSE. Fortive sells industrial software and medical equipment to businesses and hospitals. Market value $17.3bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Should I look at this?

Not a fit for our list right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See Industrials stocks that passed both tests

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
5.4%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $5.36 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
26.2×full

You pay 26.2 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
5.1%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 5 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 66 of 100. Price score: 53 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$57.89 a share, 21% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $47.71 to $64.56.

Dividend: 0.3% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.9
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.0
0.9
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$5.3bn$5.8bn$3.9bn$4.1bn$4.2bn
Operating margin
15.5%16.9%14.7%17.6%17.3%
Debt to equity
0.420.340.350.360.50
Shares outstanding
0.35bn0.35bn0.35bn0.32bn0.30bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt0.50× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsShrinking, 2.1% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 14% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $1.1 billion last quarter, up 8% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $157 million, down 6% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 18 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 15 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $938 million, down from $1.4 billion.
  • 10% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Debt is $3.1 billion more than cash, up from $3 billion a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$1.0bn
December 2024$1.1bn
March 2025$993m
June 2025$1.0bn
September 2025$1.0bn
December 2025$1.1bn
March 2026$1.1bn
June 2026$1.1bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$222m
December 2024$209m
March 2025$172m
June 2025$167m
September 2025$55m
December 2025$186m
March 2026$136m
June 2026$157m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
28 October 2026
Last annual report (10-K)
25 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
28 October 2026

Who owns it

12 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 13 last quarter. 804 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

6 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 3 sold $7m.

  • Underwood Peter C
    SVP - Chief Legal Officer
    Sold
    Date
    10 August 2026
    Shares
    8,662
    Price
    $61.59
    Value
    $533,493
  • Underwood Peter C
    SVP - Chief Legal Officer
    Sold
    Date
    4 May 2026
    Shares
    47,557
    Price
    $60.81
    Value
    $3m
  • MITCHELL KATE
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    18 February 2026
    Shares
    7,131
    Price
    $58.34
    Value
    $416,023
  • Underwood Peter C
    SVP - Chief Legal Officer
    Sold
    Date
    10 November 2025
    Shares
    58,133
    Price
    $51.28
    Value
    $3m
  • Walker Stacey A.
    SVP - Chief People Officer
    Sold
    Date
    31 October 2025
    Shares
    2,192
    Price
    $50.35
    Value
    $110,367

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 25 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 29 Jul 2026 and 6 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • Sales have shrunk: 2.1% a year.
  • It isn't cheap on profits: 26.2× operating profit.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.