Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Shares Gap Down to $239.39

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $239.39, but opened at $232.26. Danaher shares last traded at $235.01, with a volume of 728,663 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Danaher from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Finally, HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Danaher Trading Down 0.9 %

The company has a market cap of $175.69 billion, a PE ratio of 37.46, a PEG ratio of 3.65 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 50 day moving average price of $249.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.86.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.87 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 16.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DHR. Banco Santander S.A. bought a new position in Danaher in the third quarter worth approximately $683,000. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in Danaher by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 26,611 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,156,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 48.1% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 296,996 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $68,707,000 after acquiring an additional 96,395 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,080 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $764,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH grew its position in shares of Danaher by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 553,155 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $137,238,000 after acquiring an additional 2,567 shares during the period. 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.