Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and sixteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $264.40.

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,005,442. The trade was a 51.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 30.6% in the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 54,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $11,201,000 after acquiring an additional 12,816 shares during the period. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. lifted its holdings in Danaher by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 1,666 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Danaher by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,230,087 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $867,168,000 after purchasing an additional 163,332 shares during the period. ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. acquired a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at $64,936,000. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its position in Danaher by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 17,774 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,644,000 after buying an additional 938 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 2.8 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $189.42 on Friday. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $135.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.88, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $198.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $219.46.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.85%.

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.