Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Short Interest Down 5.7% in October

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,320,000 shares, a drop of 5.7% from the September 30th total of 5,640,000 shares. Approximately 0.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,490,112,000 after buying an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,125,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,279,932,000 after acquiring an additional 52,679 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Danaher by 2.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,398,649 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $849,195,000 after acquiring an additional 85,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Danaher by 22.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Trading Up 2.4 %

DHR stock traded up $5.72 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $248.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,857,231 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,741,854. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $267.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $260.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.07, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher has a 1 year low of $188.75 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays cut their price target 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. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, 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 report on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

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.