Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Downgraded by StockNews.com

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

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Bank of America boosted their target price on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC raised Danaher from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays lifted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a buy rating and a $295.00 price target on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $269.29.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $251.80 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $186.51 billion, a PE ratio of 42.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $255.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $246.19. Danaher has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $269.11.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $2,386,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,352,350. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $2,386,325.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,990 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,352,350. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 148,783 shares of company stock valued at $37,536,717. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Norges Bank bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,752,382,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Danaher by 18.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after buying an additional 3,905,449 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Danaher in the first quarter worth about $676,545,000. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in Danaher by 214.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after buying an additional 2,096,038 shares in the last quarter. 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.