Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Shares Gap Down to $257.51

Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $257.51, but opened at $250.39. Danaher shares last traded at $249.85, with a volume of 665,111 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $269.29.

Danaher Stock Down 3.6 %

The company has a market capitalization of $183.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.65, a PEG ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $254.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.51.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total value of $11,756,953.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 46,377 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.05, for a total transaction of $11,735,699.85. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,441,441.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,783 shares of company stock valued at $37,536,717 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. NBW Capital LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. NBW Capital LLC now owns 24,779 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,188,000 after buying an additional 915 shares during the period. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 75.8% during the 1st quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,087 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $521,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 710,636 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $176,325,000 after purchasing an additional 29,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Trust Co. now owns 87,500 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $21,850,000 after purchasing an additional 13,062 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.