Robert W. Baird Cuts Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target to $225.00

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price target cut by Robert W. Baird from $231.00 to $225.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

DHR has been the topic of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $197.37 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $200.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $224.58. The company has a market capitalization of $141.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher has a 1-year low of $171.00 and a 1-year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th were given a $0.32 dividend. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Danaher by 396.0% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 124 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Company Profile

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.