Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $243.3913.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $241.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $230.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $247.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 21,776 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.23, for a total value of $4,773,952.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 14,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,190,454.19. This trade represents a 59.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 2,778 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.06, for a total transaction of $586,324.68. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 20,751 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,379,706.06. The trade was a 11.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 29,728 shares of company stock worth $6,448,990 in the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Danaher during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,979,503,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $833,941,000. Viking Global Investors LP grew its position in shares of Danaher by 543.9% during the second quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 2,907,515 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $574,351,000 after buying an additional 2,455,994 shares in the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 56.2% in the second quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 4,965,646 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $980,914,000 after buying an additional 1,787,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Danaher by 44.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,708,578 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $965,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450,703 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $225.75 on Wednesday. Danaher has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $258.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $206.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $201.47. The company has a market capitalization of $159.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.55, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The conglomerate reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.17. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 14.44%.The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Investors of record on Friday, September 26th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 26th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.39%.

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.