Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Price Target to $240.00

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $280.00 to $240.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. 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 report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $223.16 on Thursday. Danaher has a 1 year low of $221.34 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $235.89 and a 200 day moving average of $253.45. The stock has a market cap of $161.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher will post 8.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 20.45%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Danaher

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,417,342,000 after acquiring an additional 148,251 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Danaher by 2.6% during the third 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 17.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $996,141,000 after acquiring an additional 535,254 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. raised its stake in Danaher by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,715,826 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $382,936,000 after purchasing an additional 9,942 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.