Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $264.40.

DHR has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares in the company, valued at $3,005,442. The trade was a 51.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Danaher by 396.0% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 124 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Sierra Ocean LLC grew its position in Danaher by 116.9% in the first quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC now owns 141 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $199.15 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $199.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.10. The stock has a market cap of $142.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. Equities analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.85%.

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.