Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Danaher Call Options (NYSE:DHR)

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.14.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. increased its holdings in Danaher by 29.9% during the second quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 6,389 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,596,000 after buying an additional 1,470 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 30.2% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,205 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $551,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 250.6% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 298 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.9% in the second quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,581 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,144,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.0% in the second quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,035 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Down 10.0 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $223.12 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $161.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50 day moving average of $236.09 and a 200-day moving average of $253.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Danaher has a one year low of $223.00 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.61%.

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.