Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Danaher (NYSE:DHR)

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders bought 12,153 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 87% compared to the average volume of 6,510 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.2% in the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $66,194,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $217,000. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1,212.8% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559 shares during the period. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 1.2% in the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $56,233,000 after buying an additional 2,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $235,583,000 after buying an additional 11,216 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Down 0.2 %

DHR stock traded down $0.52 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $222.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,785,829 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,684,308. Danaher has a twelve month low of $221.34 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.15, a PEG 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. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $235.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $253.24.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.72%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Danaher will post 8.15 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.45%.

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.