Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target Increased to $270.00 by Analysts at Barclays

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price target increased by Barclays from $260.00 to $270.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their price target for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $270.00.

Danaher Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $250.41 on Wednesday. Danaher has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $259.00. The company has a market cap of $185.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.44, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $249.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $230.78.

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 return on equity of 11.48% and a net margin of 16.78%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.36 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Tsfg LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 733.3% in the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 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.