Published on 18 Apr 2024 on Zacks via Yahoo Finance

Danaher (DHR) Gears Up to Post Q1 Earnings: Is a Beat Likely?

Danaher Corporation DHR is scheduled to release first-quarter 2024 results on Apr 23, before market open.The company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 6.8%. In the last reported quarter, its earnings of $2.09 per share beat the consensus estimate of $1.90 by 10%.Let’s see how things have shaped up for Danaher this earnings season.

Key Factors and Estimates for Q1

Improving supply chains and strong price realization are expected to have aided Danaher’s first-quarter results. Danaher’s Diagnostics segment’s performance is expected to have gained from new solutions like Beckman Coulter's DxI 9000 next-generation immunoassay analyzer. Our estimates for the segment’s first-quarter revenues are pegged at $2.4 billion, suggesting year year-over-year increase of 2.9%.Danaher acquired Abcam plc, a global supplier of protein consumables, in December 2023, which expanded the company’s Life Sciences segment. Abcam's long track record of innovation, outstanding product quality and breadth of antibody portfolio are expected to have helped Danaher solve some pertaining healthcare challenges.The company’s Life Sciences segment has been reaping the benefits from stable demand in the academic and life science research markets. However, softness in the pharma and biopharma markets is likely to have hurt the segment’s revenues in the to-be-reported quarter. For the first quarter, we expect Life Sciences’ revenues to be $1.6 billion, indicating a decline of 4.1% year over year.The impact of lower demand for COVID-related testing, vaccines and therapeutics in the market is likely to have adversely affected the Biotechnology segment’s performance in the first quarter of 2024. For the to-be-reported quarter, we expect the segment’s revenues to be $1.5 billion, indicating a decline of 17.2% year over year.Danaher expects total core revenues to have declined in high-single digits for the first quarter of 2024 due to lower respiratory and COVID vaccine and therapeutic revenues. We expect the company’s core revenues to decrease 6.9% on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter.Nevertheless, management has been trying to improve performance through operational initiatives. The company has been able to reduce the impact of supply-chain constraints through its Danaher Business System (“DBS”) initiatives. As part of the DBS initiatives, disciplined cost management, enhanced productivity and pricing actions are anticipated to have supported the company’s margin performance.