Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Receives $287.05 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $287.05.

DHR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DHR. FMR LLC raised its position in Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Danaher by 99.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $339,473,000 after acquiring an additional 675,952 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted 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 worth $761,475,000 after acquiring an additional 563,546 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Danaher by 40,196.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $119,539,000 after acquiring an additional 428,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 30.4% during the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,705,884 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $465,617,000 after purchasing an additional 397,671 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $234.84 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher has a 12-month low of $222.53 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $169.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $236.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $254.34.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

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.