Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target Increased to $270.00 by Analysts at Bank of America

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its target price hoisted by Bank of America from $258.00 to $270.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their price target for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $269.64.

Danaher Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $246.58 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $182.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.79, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $248.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $231.16. Danaher has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.36 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 106,565 shares of company stock worth $26,641,364 in the last three months. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 733.3% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.