Bank of America Raises Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target to $270.00

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its target price lifted by Bank of America from $258.00 to $270.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on DHR. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $270.00.

Danaher Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $250.41 on Wednesday. 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 has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $259.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $249.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $230.78. The stock has a market cap of $185.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.48%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.36 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Danaher by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after buying an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Danaher by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,691,735,000 after buying an additional 1,334,781 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 6.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,183,501 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,030,327,000 after purchasing an additional 502,868 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,100,722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,009,789,000 after purchasing an additional 134,905 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.