** 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

(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury and Sneha S K in Bengaluru)

((Kamal.Choudhury@thomsonreuters.com))