Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Shares Gap Down to $257.51

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $257.51, but opened at $250.39. Danaher shares last traded at $249.85, with a volume of 665,111 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on DHR. Bank of America raised their price objective on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays lifted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $269.29.

Danaher Trading Down 3.6 %

The firm has a market cap of $183.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.65, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $254.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.36 EPS. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Danaher news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,783 shares of company stock worth $37,536,717 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 7,915 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,962,000 after buying an additional 558 shares during the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 57.7% during the 3rd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,636 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,150,000 after buying an additional 1,697 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 285,489 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $70,830,000 after buying an additional 6,212 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 284,672 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $70,627,000 after buying an additional 17,519 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rice Partnership LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rice Partnership LLC now owns 39,583 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $9,821,000 after buying an additional 6,075 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.