Danaher (NYSE: DHR) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Danaher designs and manufactures professional, medical, industrial, and consumer products.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Danaher, with 17 of 19 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Danaher better than competitor 3M Company overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $4.47 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 40.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.70 per share. Estimates range from $0.68 to $0.73.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.4% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 95.9% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Danaher and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 120 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Danaher's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Danaher's profit has risen year over year by an average of 69.7% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company upped its gross margin by 2.8 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 12.1% while cost of sales rose 5.8% to $1.77 billion from a year earlier.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

52.4%

52.7%

51.0%

51.7%

Operating Margin

16.9%

17.7%

17.4%

18.0%

Net Margin

17.5%

12.8%

13.1%

20.3%

For all our Danaher-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Danaher to My Watchlist.

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