Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nineteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $287.16.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on DHR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Danaher Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of DHR stock traded down $0.71 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $245.39. 2,941,170 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,802,560. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $192.35 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $264.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $260.71. The firm has a market cap of $177.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The business's revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,130,374.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter valued at $51,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by 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.