Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Monday.

DHR has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $230.76 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market cap of $166.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $260.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $260.32. Danaher has a 1 year low of $207.63 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after acquiring an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the first quarter worth about $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Danaher by 99.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $339,473,000 after purchasing an additional 675,952 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Danaher by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after buying an additional 563,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 40,196.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after buying an additional 428,897 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

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.