Danaher’s (DHR) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Danaher (NYSE:DHR)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $277.00 target price on the conglomerate’s stock, down from their previous target price of $299.00. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 24.38% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.95.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR traded down $1.03 during trading on Thursday, reaching $222.70. 2,174,924 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,385,345. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $235.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $253.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Danaher has a 1 year low of $223.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher during the third quarter worth about $40,000. 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.