Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.32

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the conglomerate on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27.

Danaher has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years. Danaher has a dividend payout ratio of 12.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Danaher to earn $8.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.5%.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $208.10 on Friday. Danaher has a one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $227.21 and a 200 day moving average of $247.52. The company has a market capitalization of $150.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.41, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays dropped their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

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.