Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Shares Gap Up to $236.08

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $236.08, but opened at $254.72. Danaher shares last traded at $251.85, with a volume of 1,551,076 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. HSBC raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note 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. Citigroup upped their price target on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.27.

Danaher Trading Up 7.3 %

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 business has a 50 day moving average of $248.72 and a 200-day moving average of $230.39. The stock has a market cap of $187.62 billion, a PE ratio of 39.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.87 EPS. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,752,382,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Danaher by 18.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,185,203,000 after purchasing an additional 3,905,449 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,876,694,000 after acquiring an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,691,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,334,781 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.