Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $276.88.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. HSBC raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $271.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total value of $2,641,536.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $5,566,486.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 19,085 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total value of $4,866,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,578,725. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,566,486.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 113,174 shares of company stock valued at $29,775,644. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% during the 1st 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 last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted 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 acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 10.7% during 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 last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in Danaher by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,691,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,334,781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $1,752,382,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR opened at $263.31 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $256.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $251.78. Danaher has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.03 billion, a PE ratio of 44.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued 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. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.05 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

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.