Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Now Covered by Analysts at Guggenheim

Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Danaher (NYSE:DHR) in a research report released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $275.00 price objective on the conglomerate’s stock.

DHR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Raymond James lowered their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.30.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock opened at $226.16 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $243.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $256.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher has a 1-year low of $222.53 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.35 billion, a PE ratio of 43.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in 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 raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 148,251 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 2.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,265,725,000 after purchasing an additional 116,299 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Danaher by 17.6% in the third 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 last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Danaher

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.