Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.20 EPS

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.36 EPS.

Danaher Trading Down 1.1 %

DHR traded down $2.70 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $250.41. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,270,122 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,783,958. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $248.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $230.64. Danaher has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $185.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.12, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 payout ratio is 16.90%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. HSBC raised Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $270.00.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802 over the last ninety days. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.