Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) to Issue $0.27 Quarterly Dividend

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 10th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.27 per share by the conglomerate on Friday, October 25th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%.

Danaher has raised its dividend by an average of 13.4% per year over the last three years. Danaher has a payout ratio of 12.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Danaher to earn $8.69 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.4%.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR stock traded up $1.63 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $274.72. 2,170,443 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,789,919. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $261.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $255.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $198.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on DHR. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partners lifted their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $295.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,659 shares of company stock worth $11,042,433 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.10% 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.