Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Shares Gap Up on Strong Earnings

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $236.08, but opened at $254.72. Danaher shares last traded at $251.85, with a volume of 1,551,076 shares trading hands.

The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.36 earnings per share.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 16.90%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DHR. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.00.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Tsfg LLC increased its position in Danaher by 733.3% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Down 1.1 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $185.44 billion, a PE ratio of 39.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $249.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.78.

About Danaher

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.