Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Wednesday.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on DHR. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp raised their price target on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR opened at $245.41 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $177.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $264.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $260.71. Danaher has a 12-month low of $192.35 and a 12-month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.02 EPS. Research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.27 dividend. 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 is 20.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 10.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.2% during the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,194,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter valued at about $363,000. Duality Advisers LP purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter valued at about $5,573,000. Finally, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 1.2% in the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after buying an additional 2,465 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.