Zacks Research Equities Analysts Decrease Earnings Estimates for Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) – Equities research analysts at Zacks Research lowered their Q1 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for Danaher in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, April 17th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now anticipates that the conglomerate will post earnings of $1.72 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $1.74. The consensus estimate for Danaher’s current full-year earnings is $7.62 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Danaher’s Q2 2024 earnings at $1.62 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $1.90 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $2.34 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $2.14 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $2.42 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $8.47 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $2.25 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $10.01 EPS.

DHR has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays lifted their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $235.37 on Thursday. Danaher has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $248.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $230.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $174.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.87 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 16.90%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 96,490.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,287,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,180,839,000 after purchasing an additional 23,262,904 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,057,164,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 18.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after acquiring an additional 3,905,449 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 214.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Danaher by 10.7% during the fourth 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 period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.