Danaher Corporation’s DHR fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $2.14 per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.17. The bottom line increased 2.4% year over year.

Stay up-to-date with all quarterly releases: See Zacks Earnings Calendar.

Danaher reported net sales of $6.5 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $6.4 billion. The metric increased 2.1% year over year, driven by robust sales in the Diagnostics and Life Sciences segments.

DHR’s core sales increased 1%. Acquisitions had a positive impact of 1.5% on quarterly sales while foreign-currency translations had an adverse impact of 0.5%.

DHR’s Segmental Discussion

Revenues from the Life Sciences segment totaled $2.03 billion, up 5.5% year over year. We expected the segment’s revenues to be $1.96 billion. Core sales increased 1% year over year. Acquisitions had a positive impact of 5% on segmental sales while foreign-currency translations had a negative impact of 0.5%. Operating profit was $376 million, up 60% year over year. 

Revenues from the Diagnostics segment totaled $2.64 billion, down 3% year over year. Our estimate for revenues was $2.54 billion. Core sales decreased 2% year over year while foreign currency had an adverse impact of 1% on sales. Operating profit was $624 million, down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Revenues from the Biotechnology segment totaled $1.87 billion, up 6.5% year over year. Our estimate was $1.89 billion. Core sales increased 8% year over year while foreign-currency translations had an adverse impact of 1.5%. Adjusted operating profit was $508 million, up 22.1% year over year.

Danaher’s Margin Profile

In the fourth quarter, Danaher’s cost of sales increased 0.8% year over year to $2.6 billion. Gross profit of $3.4 billion increased 3.8% year over year. The gross margin was 59.5% compared with 59% in the year-ago quarter.

Selling, general and administrative expenses of $2.02 billion recorded a decrease of 0.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research and development expenses were $442 million, up 8.6% year over year.

Danaher’s operating profit increased 6.6% year over year to $1.43 billion. Operating margin contracted to 21.8% from 20.9% in the year-ago quarter.

DHR’s Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

Exiting the fourth quarter, DHR had cash and equivalents of $2.1 billion compared with $5.9 billion in 2023-end. Long-term debt was $15.5 billion at the end of the quarter compared with $16.7 billion at the end of December 2023.

Danaher generated net cash of $6.68 billion from operating activities in 2024 compared with $6.49 billion in the previous year’s comparable period. Capital expenditures totaled $1.39 billion in the same period, up 0.7% year over year. Adjusted free cash flow increased 3.5% year over year to $5.31 billion in 2024.

In the same period, DHR paid out dividends of $768 million, down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Danaher’s Outlook

For the first quarter, Danaher expects adjusted core sales from continuing operations to decline low-single digits on a year-over-year basis.

The metric is anticipated to increase approximately 3% on a year-over-year basis in 2025.

DHR’s Zacks Rank

The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Performance of Other Companies

RTX Corporation’s RTX fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.54 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.37 by 12.4%. The bottom line also improved 19.4% from the year-ago quarter’s level of $1.29 per share.

RTX’s sales totaled $21.62 billion, which surpassed the consensus estimate of $20.56 billion by 5.2%. The top line also surged a solid 8.5% from $19.93 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Lockheed Martin Corporation LMT reported fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings of $7.67 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6.60 by 16.2%. The bottom line slipped 0.4% from the year-ago quarter's adjusted figure of $7.70 per share.

Net sales were $18.62 billion, which missed the consensus estimate of $18.85 billion by 1.2%. The top line also dropped 1.3% from $18.87 billion reported in the year-ago quarter.

The Boeing Company BA incurred an adjusted loss of $5.90 per share in the fourth quarter of 2024, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $3.22 per share. The bottom line deteriorated from the year-ago quarter’s reported loss of 47 cents per share.

Revenues amounted to $15.24 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $15.19 billion by 0.4%. The top line also decreased 31% from the year-ago quarter’s figure of $22.02 billion.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

The Boeing Company (BA) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Danaher Corporation (DHR) : Free Stock Analysis Report

RTX Corporation (RTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Zacks Investment Research