Bank of America Upgrades Danaher (NYSE:DHR) to “Buy”

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a $290.00 price objective on the conglomerate’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 23.67% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.95.

Danaher Stock Down 0.4 %

Danaher stock opened at $234.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.75, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $247.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $257.62. Danaher has a twelve month low of $219.15 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,194,000 after buying an additional 7,421 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at about $363,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after purchasing an additional 2,465 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in Danaher by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $235,583,000 after purchasing an additional 11,216 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.