Danaher (NYSE:DHR) reported first-quarter 2026 sales of $6.0 billion, with core revenue up 0.5% year over year as strength in bioprocessing and better-than-expected life sciences performance largely offset a lighter-than-normal respiratory season at Cepheid. President and CEO Rainer Blair said the company delivered “better than expected adjusted EPS growth” by “leveraging the Danaher Business System to accelerate innovation, drive productivity gains, and deliver” operating improvements in a “dynamic environment.”
Quarterly results: modest core growth, stronger earnings
Blair said the quarter featured a 2.5% headwind from respiratory revenue, while the rest of the portfolio grew 3% on a core basis. He added that several end markets were “modestly better than our expectations entering the year,” citing robust commercial monoclonal antibody production and gradual improvement in R&D spending at large pharma and biopharma. Smaller biotech and academic/government customers were described as stable sequentially, with “some pockets of improved order and funnel activity.”
Geographic and market trends: China life sciences and biotech improved
Blair said core revenue in developed markets was down slightly overall, including a mid-single-digit decline in North America and a mid-single-digit increase in Western Europe. High-growth markets rose low single digits, including mid-single-digit growth in China.
In China, Blair said better-than-expected growth in biotechnology and life sciences more than offset an expected high single-digit decline in diagnostics, which continues to be impacted by volume-based procurement and reimbursement policy changes. He also noted an “acceleration” in Danaher’s life sciences and biotechnology businesses in China during the quarter.
Blair also addressed the broader global backdrop, including the conflict in the Middle East. He said Danaher has “limited direct revenue or supply chain exposure to the region,” but is “mindful of potential pressures from a sustained conflict,” including indirect impacts such as raw material inflation. In response to a question on resin and petrochemical inputs, Blair said Danaher had not seen “any meaningful pressure” yet, while emphasizing vigilance and the use of DBS and contract positions to mitigate volatility.
Segment performance: bioprocessing strength, diagnostics pressured by respiratory and China
Danaher’s biotechnology segment posted 7% core revenue growth, while discovery and medical declined low single digits. Blair said growth in medical filtration and research consumables was more than offset by declines in protein research instrumentation, as academic customers continued to face funding constraints.
Bioprocessing grew high single digits, driven by high single-digit growth in consumables tied to demand for commercialized therapies globally, with “notable strength in China.” Equipment revenue declined modestly, but Blair highlighted equipment orders growth of more than 30%—the “first quarter of year-over-year equipment order growth in nearly two years.” He said the company views this as an early sign of a multi-year investment cycle, with brownfield projects occurring now and “larger greenfield investments expected to follow.” In follow-up commentary, Blair cautioned that equipment revenue can be “a little bit lumpy” due to customer readiness and the timing of revenue recognition.
In Life Sciences, core revenue increased 0.5%. Blair said life sciences instrument businesses declined low single digits, primarily due to weakness in North America academic research customers, though he noted “early signs of momentum building in our order book.” Life sciences consumables grew low single digits; Blair said Aldevron grew in the quarter, supported by improved biotech funding conditions, and Abcam also showed pockets of improvement. Blair said Abcam’s performance benefited from “DBS-driven commercial execution” and cost-structure initiatives that have driven “meaningful margin expansion since acquisition.”
Diagnostics core revenue declined 4%. Blair said clinical diagnostics grew low single digits, with mid-single-digit growth outside China. In China diagnostics, he said pricing headwinds from volume-based procurement and reimbursement policies were “consistent with our expectations,” while volume growth was “slightly better” than expected. Beckman Coulter Diagnostics posted mid-single-digit growth outside China, led by immunoassay reagents and instrumentation.
At Cepheid, revenue fell as respiratory revenue declined about 25% year over year amid lower seasonal respiratory infection rates. Blair said Cepheid’s non-respiratory test menu grew mid-teens, led by 20% growth in sexual health and hospital-acquired infections assays. He also pointed to “strong early demand” and customer wins for the recently cleared Xpert GI Panel and said the momentum supports Cepheid’s multiplexing strategy.
Masimo acquisition: strategic fit and synergy targets
During the call, management reiterated Danaher’s plan to acquire Masimo, which Blair described as a “very typical Danaher deal” aligned with the company’s acute care diagnostics strategy alongside Radiometer. Blair said Masimo is a “mission-critical player” with “differentiated technology” and cited both geographic and “significant” call-point synergies, with Masimo stronger in the U.S. and Radiometer stronger in Europe.
Executive Vice President and CFO Matt Gugino provided more detail on expected synergies and returns. The company expects $125 million of cost synergies realized by year five, including roughly $50 million from gross margin, $50 million from operating expenses, and $25 million of public company costs, as well as approximately $50 million of revenue synergies. Blair said Danaher expects Masimo to be accretive to adjusted EPS in the first full year after closing and to deliver a high single-digit return on invested capital by the fifth full year of ownership. Gugino also said that after the deal closes, net leverage is expected to be about 2.5 turns net debt to EBITDA, and that leverage should come down “fairly quickly” given expected free cash flow of more than $5 billion per year.
Outlook: core revenue guide maintained, EPS range raised
Danaher maintained its full-year 2026 core revenue growth outlook of 3% to 6%. Blair said the company now assumes respiratory revenue of approximately $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion—slightly lower than prior expectations—offset by “modestly better core growth in the rest of the business.” Based on first-quarter performance, the company raised full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance to a range of $8.35 to $8.55, compared to the prior range of $8.35 to $8.50.
For the second quarter, the company expects core revenue to be up low single digits and adjusted operating margin of approximately 26.5%. Gugino said the typical seasonal step-down from Q1 to Q2 margins is driven by respiratory seasonality, with an additional impact this year from foreign exchange and a decision to “accelerate some growth investments from the second half of the year into Q2.”
On guidance cadence, Gugino told analysts the company continues to “anchor to the low end” of the 2026 core growth guide for planning purposes. He said reaching the high end would likely require further improvement in life sciences end markets, stronger conversion of improving biotech funding into orders, bioprocessing growth that is “a little bit better than the high single digit,” and a stronger respiratory season later in the year.
Blair also discussed artificial intelligence as a long-term tailwind, arguing AI can improve drug development yields and accelerate autonomous science, which he said should drive incremental demand for automation, analytical instruments, and reagents, with longer-term benefits flowing into bioprocessing and diagnostics.
About Danaher (NYSE:DHR)
Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR) is a global science and technology company that designs, manufactures and markets products and services for the life sciences, diagnostics, and environmental and applied markets. The company organizes its operations into business segments focused on Life Sciences, Diagnostics, and Environmental & Applied Solutions, supplying instruments, reagents, software and related services that support research, clinical testing, biopharmaceutical development, and industrial and environmental monitoring.
Products and services in Danaher’s portfolio include analytical and diagnostic instruments, laboratory consumables and reagents, digital and software solutions for workflow and data management, field and industrial monitoring equipment, and service and maintenance programs.
