Fortive Plans To Buy Johnson & Johnson's Sterilization Unit

Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) has recently made a proposal to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) to acquire its business unit of Advanced Sterilization Products (“ASP”) from its subsidiary, Ethicon, Inc..

ASP offers infection prevention solutions that are used in disinfection and sterilization of reusable surgical instruments. The solutions are based on low-temperature hydrogen peroxide sterilization technology and help in protecting patients from hospital infections. Last year, it generated $775 million of revenues.

Fortive has made a binding cash offer of $2.7 billion to purchase the business, which the company is likely to finance through available cash, equity and debt.

With the latest move, the company will be able to foray into the rapidly growing infection control market. Per the data from Markets and Markets, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% between 2017 and 2022 and reach 21.06 billion by 2022 from $15.35 billion in 2017.

Coming to the price performance, shares of Fortive have returned 17.7% over a year, outperforming the industry’s rally of 12%.

Expanding Product Portfolio

The ASP deal will help the company to expand its product portfolio. The products of ASP are STERRAD, EVOTECH and ENDOCLENS, which have gained popularity in the global market.

We believe the company is well poised to gain from the acquisition and the market in which ASP operates along with its own products namely Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Fluke, Sensing technologies, Tektronix, Qualitrol and Jacobs Vehicle Systems.

Notably, all of these products performed well in the last reported quarter and are expected to sustain the performance of Fortive across its geographical regions.

Strategic Deals Continues to Aid Growth

Strategic acquisitions and other deals have significantly contributed to Fortive’s growth trajectory by expanding its product portfolio. The company expects the buyout of ASP to be accretive like its other previous acquisitions.

Recently, the company signed a definitive agreement for combining four units of Automation & Specialty platform with Altra Industrial Motion, which will enhance its portfolio.

Additionally, the company’s acquisitions of Orpak, Industrial Scientific, eMaint and Landauer. have been aiding the segmental and regional performance of the company in every quarter since then.

We note that these deals will continue to help the company in gaining momentum in the market by improving its customer base. This will aid Fortive’s top-line growth.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Fortive carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are TE Connectivity (NYSE:TEL) and AMETEK (NYSE:AME) . Both the stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Long-term earnings growth rate for TE Connectivity and AMETEK is pegged at 10.94% and 10%, respectively.

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