BUZZ-Street View: Danaher poised for recovery in 2025 despite lower forecast

Danaher DHR.N on Wednesday missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit due to soft demand for tools and services used in drug development by its biotech and pharmaceutical clients

The company also forecast Q1 2025 adjusted core revenue to "decline low-single digits year-over-year"

Shares up 1.5% to $227

STRONGER SECOND-HALF STORY

Morningstar (fair value: $270) says it is trimming its fair value estimate to $270 per share from $285 on "weaker near-term outlook than we had expected"

Still views shares as moderately undervalued, while adding, "Danaher's wide moat rating remains intact, despite near-term headwinds"

TD Cowen ("buy"; PT: $260) says good news is two key headwinds - China value-based procurement impacting diagnostics segment and weak US instruments - "are expected to play out early in '25, thus paving way for a stronger second-half story"

Leerink Partners ("outperform," PT: $260) expects DHR as the leader in the highly attractive, bioprocess tools market, with a strong position in life sciences

Adds, although stock fell on Wednesday, "we see a rare buying opportunity" since most bad news is now baked into 2025 estimates

RBC Capital Markets ("outperform", PT: $277) says it will continue to believe that DHR will do well when it shows strong earnings growth; DHR reconfirmed our views this is likely a 2H'25 event