Analysts Set Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) Target Price at $246.79

Shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twenty have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $247.2083.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Danaher from $230.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Rothschild Redb lowered Danaher from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 22nd.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $224.72 on Friday. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $258.23. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $219.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $206.42. The stock has a market cap of $158.73 billion, a PE ratio of 46.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The conglomerate reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.17. Danaher had a net margin of 14.44% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.71 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 26th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 26th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 26.39%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 21,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $219.23, for a total transaction of $4,773,952.48. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 14,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,190,454.19. This represents a 59.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 5,174 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.42, for a total value of $1,088,713.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,625 shares in the company, valued at $552,352.50. This trade represents a 66.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,248 shares of company stock worth $6,609,663. Insiders own 11.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Saranac Partners Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter worth approximately $4,485,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Danaher by 29.8% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 6,621 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 1,522 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Danaher by 12.1% in the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 102,919 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $20,405,000 after purchasing an additional 11,129 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment grew its position in Danaher by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 44,434 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $8,809,000 after purchasing an additional 972 shares during the period. Finally, Investment Research Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at $368,000. 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.