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

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price target hoisted by Barclays from $260.00 to $270.00 in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

DHR has been the subject of several other reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp upped their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $270.00.

Danaher Price Performance

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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $249.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $230.78. 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 firm has a market cap of $185.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.36 EPS. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Tsfg LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at $30,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.