Danaher Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (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 typical daily volume of 6,510 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research raised Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DHR. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in Danaher by 3.2% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,231 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Meridian Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 957 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 1,243 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $346,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Well Done LLC raised its position in Danaher by 1.2% in the third quarter. Well Done LLC now owns 3,551 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $987,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Danaher by 0.9% during the third quarter. Waypoint Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,520 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR traded down $0.52 during trading on Friday, reaching $222.56. The stock had a trading volume of 4,785,829 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,684,308. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher has a 52 week low of $221.34 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $235.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.15, a P/E/G ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

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

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.