Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) Stock Has Average Price Target of $235.23 According to Analysts

Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seventeen have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $234.55.

DHR has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $250.00 target price on the stock. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $240.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st.

Danaher Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $221.26 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $211.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $194.88. The company has a market cap of $155.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Danaher has a 12-month low of $160.93 and a 12-month high of $242.80.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 20th. The conglomerate reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.12 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 15.95% and a return on equity of 11.04%. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.77 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Danaher will post 8.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 30th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 30th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the second quarter worth $10,492,520,000. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the second quarter worth $1,456,317,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,287,949,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at $993,846,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth $801,056,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Company Profile

Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR) is a global science and technology company that develops and manufactures products, services and solutions for the life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology industries. Its offerings help researchers, healthcare professionals and biopharmaceutical manufacturers discover, develop, produce and analyze medicines and other biological products.

The company operates through businesses that provide laboratory instruments, consumables, software and services, including technologies for cell analysis, genomics, protein research, bioprocessing and clinical diagnostics.