Stephens Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Danaher (NYSE:DHR)

Danaher (NYSE:DHR)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Stephens in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $315.00 price objective on the conglomerate’s stock. Stephens’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 27.08% from the stock’s previous close.

DHR has been the topic of several other research reports. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.28.

Danaher Stock Down 3.2 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $247.88 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.01, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $270.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.43. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Linda Filler sold 3,928 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.50, for a total transaction of $1,097,876.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 41,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,501,145.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,059 shares of company stock valued at $8,400,897. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% in 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 in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Danaher during the first quarter worth about $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Danaher by 99.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,473,000 after acquiring an additional 675,952 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Danaher by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after acquiring an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Danaher by 40,196.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.