Fortive (FTV) Q4 Earnings Report Preview: What To Look For

Industrial technology company Fortive (NYSE:FTV) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday before the bell. Here’s what you need to know.

Fortive beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.8% last quarter, reporting revenues of $1.03 billion, up 2.3% year on year. It was a stunning quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ adjusted operating income estimates.

Is Fortive a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Fortive’s revenue to grow 1.9% year on year to $1.09 billion, slowing from the 3.9% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.84 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Fortive has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates six times over the last two years.

Looking at Fortive’s peers in the industrial machinery segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. GE Aerospace delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 17.6%, beating analysts’ expectations by 13.9%, and Crane reported revenues up 6.8%, topping estimates by 1.9%. GE Aerospace traded down 7.7% following the results while Crane was also down 11.5%.

Read our full analysis of GE Aerospace’s results here and Crane’s results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the industrial machinery segment, with share prices up 7.1% on average over the last month. Fortive’s stock price was unchanged during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $58.13 (compared to the current share price of $53.70).

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