Short Interest in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Increases By 31.4%

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) saw a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,170,000 shares, an increase of 31.4% from the February 13th total of 6,220,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,280,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Danaher Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $212.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.29, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. Danaher has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $219.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $239.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 24.24%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 10.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Danaher by 0.5% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after purchasing an additional 315,446 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at $2,130,740,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Danaher by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after purchasing an additional 441,012 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on DHR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 price objective (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.76.

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.