Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.95.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR stock opened at $234.36 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $257.30. Danaher has a 12-month low of $222.53 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $169.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.72, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DHR. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,490,112,000 after acquiring an additional 139,989 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,417,342,000 after acquiring an additional 148,251 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,265,725,000 after acquiring an additional 116,299 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Danaher by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

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.