Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Short Interest Down 6.0% in July

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,160,000 shares, a drop of 6.0% from the July 15th total of 6,550,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,110,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 0.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Danaher Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $271.66 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $201.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.04, a PEG ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Danaher has a 12 month low of $182.09 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $258.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $253.96.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.05 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on DHR. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Danaher from $271.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. SVB Leerink raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $276.88.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,435,240. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Danaher news, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 16,172 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.84, for a total value of $4,525,572.48. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,229,254.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,435,240. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,707 shares of company stock valued at $10,786,944 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DHR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $1,752,382,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after acquiring an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Danaher by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,460,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter valued at $676,545,000. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 214.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,096,038 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.