We’re making our first trades of the week. We are buying 25 shares of Danaher at roughly $207 each. Following Friday’s trade, Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust will own 550 shares of DHR, increasing its weighting to 3.5% from 3.35%. We are buying 10 shares of Home Depot at roughly $358. Following the trade, the Trust will own 355 shares of HD, increasing its weighting to 3.9% from 3.8%. Friday’s market selloff picked up steam since the Morning Meeting as concerns about inflation, the economy, and tariffs weighed on stocks. With the market far lower than where it traded at the start of the week, we’re making a couple of small buys to take advantage of Friday’s lower prices. DHR 1Y mountain Danaher 1 year In a market struggling with the fact that earnings per share (EPS) estimates are likely too high for 2025, Danaher could stand out in first quarter earnings season because of how conservative it guided 2025 revenues and earnings. Analysts agree that the stock is more de-risked down at these levels, prompting two upgrades over the past couple of weeks. We’re upgrading Danaher to our 1 rating as a reflection of Friday’s buy. On March 14, Stifel upgraded its Danaher rating to a buy from hold with a $260 price target. The analysts argued that downward revisions to earnings estimates could be done and the first quarter “may be more de-risked here than elsewhere when it comes to academic/govt demand.” Cuts to academic funding have been an overhang affecting the life sciences and tools group. Last Friday, Goldman Sachs raised its Danaher rating to a buy with a $260 price target and called the stock a “bioprocessing recovery beneficiary at a more attractive valuation.” The Goldman analysts added that “now that DHR has initiated their 2025 guide at ~3%, we believe numbers are in a position that will allow the company to get back to their historic beat and raise dynamic, something that has been lost over the last several years.” For years, we have known Danaher as a company that has under-promised and over-delivered. While it has lost its way over the past couple of years, due to cyclical challenges and inventory destocking, these headwinds may be behind Danaher as the bioprocessing recovery continues this year. We have expressed frustration with Danaher and its leadership team before, but we were pleased to see them take action with self-help initiatives that should improve margins. In late February, the company revealed in a 10-K filing that it initiated a cost-savings program that could be worth at least $150 million, which could translate to nearly 20 cents in EPS. With this small add, we’re buying back half of the 50 shares that we trimmed around $250 in January. HD 1Y mountain Home Depot 1 year We are also nibbling on shares of Home Depot. This will be our fourth small purchase this month. Our previous buy was on March 13. In Tuesday’s Homestretch , we talked about why we are keeping the faith in Home Depot despite the continued softness in the…
Read More: We’re buying more shares of 2 stocks as the broader market sinks further
