Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Stephens

Stephens started coverage on shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) in a report published on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $315.00 target price on the conglomerate’s stock.

DHR has been the topic of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a buy rating and a $295.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partners raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $282.12.

Danaher Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $270.68 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04. Danaher has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $271.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $258.43. The stock has a market cap of $200.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.88, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,435,240. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $2,521,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 in the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Danaher by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Danaher by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after buying an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 1st quarter worth approximately $676,545,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 214.4% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,038 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.