Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target Raised to $250.00

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price target raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $225.00 to $250.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

DHR has been the topic of several other research reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Danaher in a report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a buy rating and a $295.00 price objective for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $276.88.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $274.13 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.43. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $255.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $249.09. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $277.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.98 billion, a PE ratio of 46.46, a PEG ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.05 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total value of $2,641,536.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $5,566,486.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,005 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $2,386,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,352,350. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 84,775 shares of company stock worth $21,802,690 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth about $1,752,382,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,998,161 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $676,545,000. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in Danaher by 214.4% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $711,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.