Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Down 3.5 %

Danaher stock opened at $227.88 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $164.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.49, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher has a twelve month low of $215.68 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $251.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $258.69.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 7,421 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the third quarter worth $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the second quarter worth $363,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after purchasing an additional 2,465 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 75.4% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,360 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 1,874 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.