Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Upgraded by Bank of America to “Buy” Rating

Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $290.00 price objective on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on DHR. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays lowered their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.95.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $234.99 on Friday. Danaher has a 1 year low of $222.53 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $246.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $257.43. The company has a market capitalization of $169.73 billion, a PE ratio of 44.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.02 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in Danaher by 2.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,490,112,000 after acquiring an additional 139,989 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 3.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after acquiring an additional 148,251 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,265,725,000 after purchasing an additional 116,299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $996,141,000 after purchasing an additional 535,254 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.