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

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 12,153 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 87% compared to the average daily volume of 6,510 call options.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR traded down $20.92 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $226.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,160,893 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,143,160. Danaher has a fifty-two week low of $225.42 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $236.09 and its 200-day moving average is $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. The firm has a market cap of $163.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.19, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Danaher will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after buying an additional 148,251 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,265,725,000 after buying an additional 116,299 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,715,826 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $382,936,000 after buying an additional 9,942 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James decreased their target price on Danaher from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.81.

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.