Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Receives $278.00 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and sixteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $277.76.

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $2,410,000. Northstar Financial Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $229,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 47.9% during the 4th quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 13,208 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,032,000 after acquiring an additional 4,276 shares during the last quarter. TFR Capital LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $1,228,000. Finally, Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Castle Rock Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,891 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,811,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $211.09 on Friday. Danaher has a 52 week low of $196.80 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $220.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $240.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $150.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.24%.

Danaher Company Profile

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.