Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Raises Dividend to $0.32 Per Share

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the conglomerate on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27.

Danaher has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years. Danaher has a payout ratio of 12.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Danaher to earn $8.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.5%.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR traded up $3.12 during trading on Thursday, hitting $208.10. 4,705,095 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,524,800. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $227.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $247.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Danaher has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $150.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.41, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Danaher will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.