Business News
Danaher Announces Record Third Quarter Results
Thursday 16. October 2008 - Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) announced today that net earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended September 26, 2008 were $372 million, or $1.11 per diluted share, an 11% increase as compared to the Company's 2007 third quarter net earnings from continuing operations of $335 million, or $1.03 per diluted share.
Included in the 2008 third quarter earnings results were certain non-cash charges related to the acquisition of Tektronix for fair value adjustments to recorded inventory and deferred revenue which reduced net earnings by approximately $10 million or $0.03 per diluted share in the period. Included in the third quarter 2007 net earnings per share is approximately $0.02 per share related to discrete tax items and other tax-related benefits. Absent the Tektronix related charges and the discrete tax benefits in the prior year period, adjusted net earnings from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2008 were $382 million or $1.14 per diluted share, a 16.5% increase over last year’s third quarter adjusted net earnings from continuing operations of $328 million, or $1.01 per diluted share. The Company’s effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2008 was 24.5% as compared to 23.6% in the same prior year period.
Sales from continuing operations for the 2008 third quarter were $3.21 billion, 17.5% higher than the $2.73 billion reported for the 2007 third quarter.
Net earnings from continuing operations for the first nine months of 2008 were $1.01 billion, or $3.03 per diluted share, compared with net earnings from continuing operations of $894 million, or $2.75 per diluted share for the first nine months of 2007.
Sales from continuing operations for the first nine months of 2008 were $9.51 billion compared to $7.88 billion for the first nine months of 2007, an increase of 20.5%.
H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We delivered a strong performance in the third quarter including 4% revenue growth from existing businesses, $400 million of free cash flow and 13% adjusted EPS growth despite the negative impact of a strengthening US dollar and, hopefully, a high water mark for commodity prices. Clearly, the events of the last several weeks have created a level of uncertainty with respect to the global economy. However, our portfolio of high quality businesses, our talented organization and our Danaher Business System give us confidence that we can outperform during these challenging times.”