Wall Street Zen Downgrades Danaher (NYSE:DHR) to Hold

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Monday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on DHR. UBS Group lowered their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, HSBC lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $240.00 in a report on Friday, April 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $248.17.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR stock opened at $202.63 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $145.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77. Danaher has a 12-month low of $171.00 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $211.72.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other Danaher news, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total transaction of $245,925,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at $611,036,665.92. The trade was a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Spinnaker Trust raised its holdings in Danaher by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 4,304 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $988,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,983 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $914,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 8,287 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,902,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC now owns 1,099 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perennial Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,343 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.