Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Short Interest Update

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,010,000 shares, an increase of 6.2% from the August 31st total of 6,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Stephens began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $315.00 price target for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $282.12.

Danaher Stock Down 1.3 %

NYSE DHR traded down $3.48 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $274.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,367,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,784,547. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $203.35 billion, a PE ratio of 46.46, a P/E/G ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $270.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $258.06.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.05 EPS. Danaher’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted 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 valued at $3,691,735,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334,781 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after buying an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. 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.