Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday.

DHR has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group decreased their target price on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $238.83 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $255.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $259.52. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $215.68 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $172.50 billion, a PE ratio of 45.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Danaher by 2.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after acquiring an additional 139,989 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 3.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after acquiring an additional 148,251 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,265,725,000 after acquiring an additional 116,299 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $996,141,000 after purchasing an additional 535,254 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.