The Goldman Sachs Group Initiates Coverage on Danaher (NYSE:DHR)

Equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm set a “buy” rating and a $265.00 price target on the conglomerate’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.16% from the stock’s current price.

DHR has been the subject of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird set a $247.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Danaher from $230.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $220.00 target price (down previously from $245.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 22nd. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.79.

Danaher Trading Up 3.1%

Danaher stock opened at $230.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $217.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $205.19. The company has a market capitalization of $162.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.89. Danaher has a 52 week low of $171.00 and a 52 week high of $258.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted 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 net margin of 14.44% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.71 EPS. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 5,174 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.42, for a total transaction of $1,088,713.08. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 2,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,352.50. This trade represents a 66.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 21,776 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.23, for a total transaction of $4,773,952.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 14,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,190,454.19. This trade represents a 59.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 30,248 shares of company stock worth $6,609,663 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 1.6% in the second quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 249,377 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $49,262,000 after purchasing an additional 3,862 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 11.6% during the second quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 13,332 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,634,000 after buying an additional 1,391 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 526,950 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $104,094,000 after buying an additional 30,300 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 170,505 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $34,954,000 after acquiring an additional 2,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nvwm LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 7,093 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,401,000 after acquiring an additional 1,204 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.