Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $287.05.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $231.10 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $238.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $255.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a market cap of $166.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher has a one year low of $222.53 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released 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. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.02 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. FMR LLC raised its position in Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 99.0% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,473,000 after acquiring an additional 675,952 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 22.7% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 40,196.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. raised its position in Danaher by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,705,884 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $465,617,000 after purchasing an additional 397,671 shares during 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.