Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Research Coverage Started at Stephens

Stephens began coverage on shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) in a research report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $315.00 price target on the conglomerate’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $280.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $282.12.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $270.68 on Tuesday. Danaher has a 1-year low of $182.09 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $271.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $258.43. The company has a market capitalization of $200.49 billion, a PE ratio of 45.88, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 16.94%. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.05 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $2,521,960.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 over the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after purchasing an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the first quarter worth about $676,545,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 214.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.