STE vs DHR Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
STE (STERIS) is a specialized sterilization and surgical services company with durable recurring revenue from hospital contracts, while DHR (Danaher) is a diversified life science and diagnostics platform with the legendary DBS operational culture and critical bioprocessing infrastructure. Both are high-quality healthcare equipment businesses with strong recurring revenue characteristics.
STE vs DHR compares two premium healthcare equipment companies — STERIS' specialized sterilization services dominance versus Danaher's diversified life sciences platform and operational excellence culture.
DHR holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. DHR has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+8.47% vs -18.15%), though STE has the better forward P/E setup (19.09x vs 23.24x for DHR). On fundamentals, STE is growing revenue faster (7.30%), while DHR maintains the higher operating margin (19.78%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for STE (+12.55%) than for DHR (+5.50%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want focused exposure to hospital sterilization and surgical equipment services with high recurring contract revenue
- Value STERIS' dominant market position and sticky customer relationships in infection prevention infrastructure
- Prefer a simpler, narrower healthcare services business to Danaher's broader life science diversification
- Want diversified life science and diagnostics exposure across bioprocessing, analytical instruments, and environmental testing
- Value the Danaher Business System as a durable operational discipline that consistently improves margins across acquired businesses
- See Cytiva bioprocessing recovery as a catalyst after the biopharmaceutical inventory correction cycle completes
| Metric | STE | DHR |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 50.8 | 51.1 |
| AI ranki | #498 | #483 |
| Latest closei | $205.04 | $211.81 |
| 1M returni | -13.45% | +0.15% |
| 6M returni | -5.91% | +11.41% |
| 1Y returni | -18.15% | +8.47% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | STE | DHR |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $8.19K (-18.1%) started 2025-09-18 | $10.85K (+8.5%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $10.3K (+3.0%) started 2021-09-20 | $7.6K (-24.0%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $34.32K (+243.2%) started 2016-09-19 | $33.86K (+238.6%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | STE | DHR |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $22.79B | $151.89B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 28.58 | 38.45 |
| Forward P/Ei | 19.09 | 23.24 |
| Price/Salesi | 4.39 | 5.89 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.04 | 6.99 |
| Analyst targeti | $263.13 | $227.96 |
| Target upsidei | +12.55% | +5.50% |
| Metric | STE | DHR |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 7.30% | 5.50% |
| Earnings growthi | 14.00% | 59.70% |
| EPS growthi | +14.00% | +59.70% |
| FCF margini | +13.23% | +17.23% |
| Operating margini | 19.15% | 19.78% |
| Profit margini | 13.33% | 15.95% |
| ROIC proxyi | 11.39% | 7.61% |
| Return on equityi | 11.39% | 7.61% |
| Dividend yieldi | 1.11% | 0.74% |
| Payout ratioi | 30.81% | 25.67% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | No increase yet |
| Betai | 0.91 | 0.80 |
| Debt/equityi | 28.31 | 52.97 |
| Current ratioi | 1.91 | 1.65 |
| Quick ratioi | 1.17 | 1.15 |
Over the past year, STE and DHR have moved weakly in the same direction (correlation of 0.36), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | STE | DHR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -18.15% | +8.47% |
| CAGRi | -18.16% | +8.48% | |
| Volatilityi | 25.35% | 31.44% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.84 | 0.27 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -1.16 | 0.41 | |
| Max drawdowni | 25.78% | 33.11% | |
| Current drawdowni | 23.68% | 12.49% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 11.80% | 13.25% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 14.16% | 16.42% | |
| Max daily dropi | 7.74% | 10.99% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 10.97% | 10.78% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -0.31% | -25.13% |
| CAGRi | -0.06% | -5.63% | |
| Volatilityi | 26.28% | 29.02% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.04 | -0.21 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.06 | -0.30 | |
| Max drawdowni | 36.18% | 43.70% | |
| Current drawdowni | 23.68% | 26.35% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 12.18% | 21.22% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 14.66% | 23.07% | |
| Max daily dropi | 10.89% | 10.99% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 13.72% | 14.50% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +212.50% | +224.44% |
| CAGRi | +12.07% | +12.49% | |
| Volatilityi | 25.19% | 26.17% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.40 | 0.41 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.57 | 0.59 | |
| Max drawdowni | 36.18% | 44.20% | |
| Current drawdowni | 23.68% | 27.01% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 8.25% | 12.65% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 11.24% | 17.14% | |
| Max daily dropi | 11.59% | 10.99% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 17.18% | 14.50% |
| Category | STE | DHR |
|---|---|---|
| Company | STERIS plc | Danaher Corporation |
| Sector | Healthcare | Healthcare |
| Industry | Medical Devices | Diagnostics & Research |
| Core business | STERIS provides sterilization, surgical equipment maintenance, and infection prevention products and services to hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and life science companies, generating high-recurring-revenue service contracts. | Danaher is a diversified life science and diagnostics company operating through biotechnology (Cytiva bioprocessing equipment), life science tools, environmental, and industrial technology segments, known for the Danaher Business System (DBS) operational excellence methodology. |
| Investor focus | Investors track STERIS' healthcare and applied sterilization service revenue growth, contract service revenue recurring proportion, and margin profile as a high-quality, recurring revenue healthcare services company. | Investors track Danaher's core revenue growth excluding M&A and currency effects, bioprocessing segment demand from biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and free cash flow conversion as a measure of the DBS-driven operational discipline. |
- Dominant market position in hospital sterilization services creates sticky, recurring contract revenue with high customer retention
- Applied sterilization technologies (AST) segment serves pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers with outsourced sterilization services
- Recurring service revenue from installed base of surgical equipment and sterilizers provides a predictable, capital-light growth model
- Danaher Business System (DBS) operational excellence culture consistently improves margins and returns across acquired businesses
- Cytiva bioprocessing platform is critical infrastructure for biopharmaceutical drug manufacturing with long-term customer partnerships
- Diversified portfolio across life sciences, diagnostics, and environmental water testing provides resilience across cycles
- Hospital capital spending cycles affect new sterilizer equipment sales even as service revenue is more resilient
- Surgical procedure volumes affect demand for surgical equipment and related consumables — any procedure volume slowdown impacts revenue
- Competitive pressures from niche sterilization service providers in specific geographic or product markets
- Bioprocessing demand has been cyclical as biopharmaceutical customers worked through COVID-era inventory buildups
- Fortive (FTV) and Envista (NVST) spinoffs have progressively simplified Danaher, but integration of Cytiva was transformative and took time
- Valuation is typically premium, limiting upside in multiple-compression environments even with strong business fundamentals
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