Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target Raised to $270.00

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price target increased by Barclays from $260.00 to $270.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on DHR. StockNews.com lowered 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 boosted their price objective for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective 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, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $270.00.

Danaher Stock Up 0.3 %

DHR stock opened at $246.45 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $248.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $231.08. The stock has a market cap of $182.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total transaction of $5,618,569.18. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 90,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,644,589.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 106,565 shares of company stock valued at $26,641,364 in the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Danaher by 12.0% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Danaher by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after acquiring an additional 1,619,586 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Danaher by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,691,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,334,781 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Danaher by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,183,501 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,030,327,000 after acquiring an additional 502,868 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,100,722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,009,789,000 after buying an additional 134,905 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

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.