Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Danaher (NYSE:DHR)

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 12,153 call options on the company. This is an increase of 87% compared to the typical volume of 6,510 call options.

Danaher Stock Down 8.4 %

DHR stock traded down $20.92 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $226.92. 6,160,893 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,143,160. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $236.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $253.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.19, a PEG ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher has a 52-week low of $225.42 and a 52-week high of $281.70. 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 (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 63.3% during the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays cut 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. Wolfe Research raised Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on Danaher from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.81.

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.