Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Given New $240.00 Price Target at UBS Group

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price objective decreased by UBS Group from $275.00 to $240.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on DHR. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 price target (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Danaher Trading Up 2.3 %

NYSE DHR opened at $196.52 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher has a 52 week low of $171.00 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $201.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $225.57. The company has a market cap of $140.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 24.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Danaher by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,715,641,000 after purchasing an additional 315,912 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,056,996,000 after buying an additional 315,446 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,971,609,000 after acquiring an additional 441,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,934,991 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,821,477,000 after purchasing an additional 992,594 shares in the last quarter. 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.