Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Short Interest Down 22.5% in March

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,030,000 shares, a decrease of 22.5% from the March 15th total of 7,780,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,580,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Danaher by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,715,641,000 after purchasing an additional 315,912 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after buying an additional 315,446 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Danaher by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after purchasing an additional 441,012 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,934,991 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,821,477,000 after purchasing an additional 992,594 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Scotiabank began coverage on Danaher in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird set a $231.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Danaher from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $240.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $274.55.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR traded down $1.87 on Monday, reaching $184.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,817,809 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,487,384. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $201.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $226.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.03, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. Danaher has a 12-month low of $171.00 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.24%.

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.