Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.32

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the conglomerate on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a 18.5% increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27.

Danaher has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years. Danaher has a dividend payout ratio of 14.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Danaher to earn $8.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.9%.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $212.36 on Wednesday. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $196.80 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company has a market cap of $151.78 billion, a PE ratio of 40.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $216.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $237.75.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on DHR. 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, December 13th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank started coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.24.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.