Remember that sick feeling when your favorite stock falls 50% and just… keeps… falling? I sure do. A couple of years ago I watched Danaher drop from almost $295 all the way into the low $170s and wondered if the glory days of the pandemic boom would ever come back. Turns out patience might actually pay off this time.
Why Jim Cramer Thinks Danaher’s Turnaround Is Real
Let’s be honest — the last few years have been brutal for anyone holding life sciences names. The entire sector got absolutely crushed after the Covid party ended. Companies that make the picks and shovels for drug development (think bioreactors, chromatography systems, lab analytics) saw orders explode in 2020-2021, then customers basically stopped buying anything for two straight years because they had overstocked.
But something quietly changed in 2025.
Agilent Technologies, one of the cleanest proxies for the space, just put up a fantastic quarter and the stock has rocketed roughly 50% off the April bottom. When the CEO started talking about customers finally working through inventory and new orders picking up again, the market listened.
“If Agilent’s turning around, then I have to believe the arms dealers to the life science industry can keep making a comeback.”
– Jim Cramer, December 2025
And the biggest “arms dealer” of them all? Danaher.
From Pandemic Darling to Post-Covid Hangover
Danaher’s story is painfully familiar to anyone who lived through the 2021-2023 drawdown. Revenue growth went from +30% to negative in what felt like overnight. The Cytiva bioprocessing business, acquired for $21 billion right at the peak, suddenly looked massively overpriced as customers canceled or delayed orders.
The stock chart tells the story better than any earnings call ever could:
- September 2021 peak → ~$295
- 2023-2024 trough → ~$170s
- December 2025 close → ~$226 and climbing
That’s still 23% below the all-time high, but it’s a 30%+ rally from the spring lows. More importantly, the character of the stock has changed — volume is picking up on up days, short interest is falling, and analysts are racing to upgrade.
Morgan Stanley Just Flipped Bullish — Here’s Why It Matters
This week Morgan Stanley initiated coverage with the equivalent of a buy rating and slapped a $270 price target on Danaher. That’s roughly 20% upside from current levels. Their logic is straightforward but powerful:
- Inventory destocking cycle is largely over
- China biotech funding is stabilizing
- U.S. onshoring of life sciences manufacturing is accelerating
- Danaher has deliberately shifted its portfolio toward higher-growth segments
Perhaps the most interesting angle? Analysts now expect mid-single-digit organic growth in 2026 — a massive improvement from the negative growth of 2023-2024. If Danaher simply hits the middle of guidance, the stock is likely to keep running.
The Peer Group Is Waking Up Too
It’s not just Danaher. Look across the space and you see similar green shoots:
- Thermo Fisher — quietly putting up stable quarters and guiding slightly above expectations
- Waters Corp — seeing academic and pharma spending stabilize
- Revvity — lesser known but moving in lockstep with the group
When an entire sector starts flashing the same signals at the same time, you pay attention. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that these kind of synchronized turns often mark the beginning of multi-year upcycles.
So… Should You Buy Danaher Right Now?
Here’s my personal take after watching this name for years.
If you already own it (like many long-term growth portfolios do), I think you hold and potentially add on weakness. The risk/reward finally feels skewed in the shareholder’s favor again.
If you don’t own it? I’d rather wait for a small pullback. The stock has run hard in the last eight weeks and momentum indicators are getting stretched. A digest period around $210-215 would be ideal for new money.
Either way, the thesis feels intact: the life sciences tools industry is cycling from bust back to boom, and Danaher remains the highest-quality name in the group.
The Bottom Line
Three years ago everyone loved these stocks. Two years ago everyone hated them. Now? The smart money is quietly accumulating again.
Jim Cramer put it best: “It’s been really frustrating… Turns out buying the post-Covid washout was early, but not wrong.”
For patient investors, 2026 could be the year Danaher finally puts the pandemic hangover behind it and starts marching toward new all-time highs. I, for one, wouldn’t bet against it.
Disclosure: I do not currently own Danaher shares personally, though several model portfolios I follow maintain positions. Always do your own research — this is not investment advice.
