One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$180.91 our estimate vs market $175.98
Wall Street consensus: $242.35 (34.0% higher than our fair-value estimate)
3% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Danaher Corporation
DHR · NYQ · Healthcare · Diagnostics & Research
Current price
$175.98
52-week range
$160.93 - $242.80
Market cap
$124.55B
Balance sheet
Healthy
17.70x Strong cushion
Net debt $13.98B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 0.9% last year.
- Reward Returns 7.1% on equity, ahead of 33% of its peers.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 28.3% to 22.9% over 3 years.
- Risk Net debt grew 3.1% over 3 years.
What this company does
Danaher Corporation
Danaher makes the essential, high-tech tools and supplies that scientists and doctors use for research and diagnosing diseases. The company's money primarily comes from selling these instruments and consumables to the life sciences, biotechnology, and medical diagnostics industries. This matters because a large portion of its sales are recurring revenue (income from products customers have to re-buy regularly, like lab supplies), which can provide a stable and predictable stream of cash for the business.
How the company got here
Founded in 1984 by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales, Danaher started not in healthcare, but as an industrial manufacturing company. A key turning point was the creation of the Danaher Business System (DBS), a philosophy of continuous improvement that guides how they run the company and integrate new businesses. Over the years, they strategically sold off their industrial parts and acquired companies in the science and technology fields. This transformed Danaher into the focused healthcare leader it is today, specializing in life sciences and diagnostics.
What it actually does
Danaher doesn't make the medicines you take, but it creates the critical tools, software, and services that scientists and doctors use for their work. Think of them as a high-tech supplier for the healthcare industry. Their products are used in hospitals, research labs, and pharmaceutical companies to diagnose diseases, conduct research, and develop and manufacture new drugs and vaccines. A large portion of their business comes from recurring revenue (the steady income from selling disposable supplies and services that customers need to buy repeatedly), which provides a stable financial foundation.
Biotechnology
This is Danaher's largest segment, making up a significant part of its business. It provides the essential equipment, supplies, and services that pharmaceutical companies use to discover, develop, and produce biologic drugs (complex medicines made from living cells), vaccines, and new treatments like cell and gene therapies. Customers, from small research labs to large drug manufacturers, pay for everything from filtration systems to single-use bags needed to create these advanced therapies. This segment essentially provides the "picks and shovels" for the modern medicine gold rush.
Life Sciences
This part of the company provides scientists with the instruments and supplies they need to study the basic building blocks of life, like cells and proteins. Their products include powerful microscopes, tools for analyzing genes, and various lab instruments that help researchers understand diseases and discover potential new drugs. Customers are often academic universities, government research centers, and pharmaceutical companies working on the early stages of medical breakthroughs. This segment is crucial for the foundational research that leads to future medical treatments.
Diagnostics
This segment, which accounts for a major portion of revenue, creates the instruments, tests, and software that hospitals and clinics use to diagnose diseases and monitor patients. For example, they make the machines that analyze blood samples, systems that test for infectious diseases, and equipment used to examine tissue for cancer. The customers are hospitals, doctors' offices, and independent testing labs who rely on these tools to make accurate and timely decisions about patient care. A large part of this business is selling the disposable test cartridges and supplies that need to be repurchased for the machines to work.
What management is betting on now
Danaher's strategy focuses on growing through innovation and strategic acquisitions (buying other companies that fit well with their business). They are heavily invested in the fast-growing areas of biologic drugs and genomic medicines, which includes cell and gene therapy. Management is also focused on expanding its recurring revenue by selling more consumables (disposable supplies that customers must reorder) and services for the instruments they sell. A key priority is using their Danaher Business System to make newly acquired companies more efficient and to continuously improve their existing operations.
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q2
$1.13B
FY2024 Q3
$1.22B
FY2024 Q4
$1.50B
FY2025 Q1
$1.05B
FY2025 Q2
$1.09B
FY2025 Q3
$1.37B
FY2025 Q4
$1.75B
FY2026 Q1
$1.08B
Revenue
$5.95B
Net income
$1.03B
Diluted EPS
1.45
Operating cash flow
$1.32B
Free cash flow
$1.08B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$6.84B
Net income
$1.20B
Diluted EPS
1.69
Operating cash flow
$2.12B
Free cash flow
$1.75B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$6.05B
Net income
$908.00M
Diluted EPS
1.27
Operating cash flow
$1.66B
Free cash flow
$1.37B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.94B
Net income
$555.00M
Diluted EPS
0.77
Operating cash flow
$1.34B
Free cash flow
$1.09B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.74B
Net income
$954.00M
Diluted EPS
1.32
Operating cash flow
$1.30B
Free cash flow
$1.05B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$6.54B
Net income
$1.09B
Diluted EPS
1.50
Operating cash flow
$2.02B
Free cash flow
$1.50B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.80B
Net income
$818.00M
Diluted EPS
1.12
Operating cash flow
$1.51B
Free cash flow
$1.22B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.74B
Net income
$907.00M
Diluted EPS
1.22
Operating cash flow
$1.42B
Free cash flow
$1.13B
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $180.91 vs current price $175.98
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $242.35 (34.0% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $180.91 a share — about 2.8% away from today's price of $175.98, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $14.0B. Interest coverage 17.7x.
Net debt
$13.98B
Interest coverage
17.70x
Danaher Corporation's profit covers its interest bill about 17.7 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
DHR
BASELINE
Danaher Corporation
Total debt $19.68B Interest coverage 17.70x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $43.16B Interest coverage 5.72x -68% vs DHR Carries about 3.1x less debt cushion than DHR.
Total debt $3.54B Interest coverage 13.21x -25% vs DHR Carries about 1.3x less debt cushion than DHR.
Total debt $34.14B Interest coverage 16.33x -8% vs DHR Has roughly the same debt cushion as DHR.
Total debt $17.28B Interest coverage 4.87x -72% vs DHR Carries about 3.6x less debt cushion than DHR.
Total debt $5.60B Interest coverage 11.54x -35% vs DHR Carries about 1.5x less debt cushion than DHR.
What you should know
The case for and against DHR
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 0.9% last year.
-
Returns 7.1% on equity, ahead of 33% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Operating margin compressed from 28.3% to 22.9% over 3 years.
-
Net debt grew 3.1% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
34.04x
Forward P/E
19.02x
P/B
2.35x
P/S
5.03x
EV/EBITDA
17.94x
PEG ratio
1.16x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
59.0%
Operating margin
22.9%
Net margin
14.9%
ROE
7.1%
ROA
4.2%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.37x
Current ratio
1.87x
Quick ratio
1.40x
Total debt
$19.68B
Total cash
$5.70B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$24.78B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-0.2%
EPS TTM
5.17
EPS 5Y CAGR
-19.4%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$6.44B
Free CF TTM
$5.26B
FCF margin
21.2%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
—
Last ex-div date
—