the Standard & Poor’s 500 He has some huge names, like Amazon and Microsoft. But some of the best US stocks may be those that don’t get as much attention.

He enters Danaher (NYSE: DHR). Investors may have lost interest after five years of going nowhere, but that may be about to change.

Great job

Danaher sells life sciences equipment and consumables. Its main focus is bioprocessing, which is roughly related to drug discovery and manufacturing.

Drug discovery can be a fast-moving and dynamic industry. Therefore, the company has to work hard to keep up with the latest developments. In recent years, this has included large acquisitions at very high multiples. This creates a risk that investors cannot ignore.

However, Danaher’s core business is very good. They sell consumables that businesses need to keep buying, generating a lot of repeat business. Better yet, they are often identified in drug approval processes. This makes transformation almost impossible and puts the company in a very strong position.

numbers

This is all great. But the company’s latest numbers are disappointing to say the least, and the stock hasn’t moved anywhere since 2021 as a result. In the past five years, sales have increased by 10% and free cash flow has gone nowhere. This does not justify its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.

At the time I was looking at Danaher, I was a huge fan of the business. But I couldn’t come to terms with her numbers. However, this may be about to change. The company expects revenue growth to range between 3% and 6% and earnings per share (EPS) to increase by at least 7%.

If the company can get its growth back on track, today’s stock price could make sense. There is a strong reason why this happens.

Time to shine

Slow growth over the past five years is by no means normal for Danaher. It’s a result of a very specific problem the company was struggling with. Demand for bioprocessing equipment and consumables has increased during the Covid period. But when the pandemic ended, customers had plenty of excess inventory.

Instead of buying more, pharmaceutical companies chose to use what they had. This meant that Danaher’s sales and profits slowed significantly.

However, this seems to be coming to an end. As a result, there is a good chance that growth will recover in the near future – as soon as this year. The high end of the company’s 2026 EPS guidance indicates a P/E ratio of 22. That’s about the low end of where it has traded in the past 10 years.

High stock levels mean the stock has been dead for five years. But there are real signs that this may be coming to an end.

Extra payment

Danaher is also set to benefit from another boost. Research funding in the United States has been under pressure recently, but that is about to change. Congressional appropriators rejected the administration’s proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health. This is another positive sign.

Things are starting to fall into place for Danaher after some tough years. So I think investors should consider buying the stock while it is declining.