Two quality spinoffs from Danaher

Article Excerpt

One of our long-time favourite stocks, Danaher Corp. spun off its industrial testing equipment business as Fortive in 2016. That new firm then spun off its own automotive-related businesses in 2020 as Vontier. As we often point out, new spinoff firms tend to move sideways for the first year or two until they build up a following among brokers and investors. In fact, Fortive’s stock made little progress in its first year as a separate company, but it is now up about 75%. We expect the same pattern for Vontier, which is still trading close to its spinoff price. Moreover, both firms stand to gain from stronger demand for their products as manufacturing activity ramps up following last year’s COVID-19 lockdowns. FORTIVE CORP. $74 is a spinoff buy. The company (New York symbol FTV; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 358.4 million; Market cap: $26.5 billion; Dividend yield: 0.4%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.fortive.com) makes specialized testing equipment for industrial customers. Those products measure…