Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Raised to Buy at The Goldman Sachs Group

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) was upgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $260.00 target price on the conglomerate’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 23.73% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on DHR. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 target price (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Danaher Trading Down 0.1 %

DHR opened at $210.14 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.19 billion, a PE ratio of 39.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. 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 has a 12-month low of $196.80 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $217.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $239.26.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC raised its stake in Danaher by 63.3% during the 4th quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. 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.