Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,700,000 shares, a growth of 8.1% from the May 31st total of 7,120,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,890,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,000,040.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,457,798.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $2,386,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,990 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,352,350. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,000,040.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,457,798.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,783 shares of company stock worth $37,536,717 in the last 90 days. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Tsfg LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 733.3% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher during the first quarter worth $30,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.67.

Danaher Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE DHR opened at $240.21 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher has a 1-year low of $182.09 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $255.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $246.95. The company has a market capitalization of $177.92 billion, a PE ratio of 40.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

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.