Brokerages Set Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) PT at $263.24

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $263.24.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Wall Street Zen raised Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Sunday. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Raymond James reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd.

Danaher Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.93 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $189.54. 6,514,078 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,479,894. The stock has a market cap of $135.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.90, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. Danaher has a twelve month low of $171.00 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $192.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $213.41.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. Equities research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.85%.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total value of $3,129,390.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares in the company, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total value of $245,925,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at $611,036,665.92. This trade represents a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of DHR. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in Danaher by 396.0% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 124 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Sierra Ocean LLC grew its position in Danaher by 116.9% in the first quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC now owns 141 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.