Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Short Interest Update

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 5,420,000 shares, a growth of 7.3% from the November 15th total of 5,050,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 0.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. increased its stake in Danaher by 29.9% in the second quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 6,389 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,470 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management grew its position in Danaher by 23.3% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 10,328 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,595,000 after acquiring an additional 1,955 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC raised its stake in Danaher by 8.7% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 934 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $233,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.8% in the second quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,551,000 after acquiring an additional 338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 12.1% in the 2nd quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 1,334 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $333,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR traded down $0.65 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $233.53. The stock had a trading volume of 3,190,444 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,793,669. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $245.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $257.13. The firm has a market cap of $168.67 billion, a PE ratio of 44.57, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher has a one year low of $222.53 and a one year high of $281.70.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on DHR shares. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.95.

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.