Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Short Interest Update

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,320,000 shares, a decline of 5.7% from the September 30th total of 5,640,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days. Currently, 0.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DHR. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the second quarter worth about $363,000. Norden Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the first quarter worth about $4,151,000. Duality Advisers LP bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the first quarter worth about $5,573,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 75.4% in the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,360 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,090,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Stock Up 1.3 %

DHR traded up $3.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $248.82. The company had a trading volume of 1,124,925 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,745,379. 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 has a 12 month low of $190.95 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $267.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $260.32. The company has a market cap of $179.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.55, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The business’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

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.