Stephens Begins Coverage on Danaher (NYSE:DHR)

Equities research analysts at Stephens initiated coverage on shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) in a research note issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $315.00 price target on the conglomerate’s stock. Stephens’ price target indicates a potential upside of 13.30% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on DHR. 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. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $281.06.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $278.02 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $270.77 and a 200-day moving average of $258.06. The stock has a market cap of $205.93 billion, a PE ratio of 47.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 16.94%. The firm 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 posted $2.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Danaher

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 144.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,086 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $483,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 3,235 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $748,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 5,046 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $957,000. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in Danaher by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,691,735,000 after buying an additional 1,334,781 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

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.