Stephens Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Danaher (NYSE:DHR)

Stephens reissued their overweight rating on shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) in a research note published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $315.00 price objective on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.28.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $245.41 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $181.77 billion, a PE ratio of 41.59, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $270.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $260.34.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was 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 owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Linda Filler sold 3,928 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.50, for a total value of $1,097,876.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 41,149 shares in the company, valued at $11,501,145.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 30,059 shares of company stock worth $8,400,897 in the last quarter. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tsfg LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 733.3% during the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in Danaher during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the second quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 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.