Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Given New $270.00 Price Target at Bank of America

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its target price lifted by Bank of America from $258.00 to $270.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on DHR. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird increased 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. HSBC raised shares of Danaher from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $270.00.

Danaher Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $246.45 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $248.87 and its 200-day moving average is $231.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.85. Danaher has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The firm has a market cap of $182.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 106,565 shares of company stock worth $26,641,364 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Danaher by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after buying an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Danaher by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Danaher by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,691,735,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334,781 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Danaher by 6.5% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,183,501 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,030,327,000 after purchasing an additional 502,868 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Danaher by 1.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,100,722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,009,789,000 after purchasing an additional 134,905 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.