Stifel analyst Nathan Jones attended Dover's sell-side meeting in New York where CEO Rich Tobin announced a SG&A rightsizing plan to drive operating margin enhancement and lay the groundwork for future funding of strategic initiatives. In a research note to investors, Jones says the plan is a broad-based SG&A right-sizing that is expected to deliver $130M of pre-tax annualized savings by the end of 2019, with $30M of the savings deployed for growth investments. Jones maintains a Hold rating and raised his price target to $92 based on 15x his updated 2020E EPS.

Baird raised the firm's price target on Dover to $208 from $185 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares after its Q1 earnings beat. The company "healthily" beat consensus while its growth outpaced expectations and the management's guidance was narrowed to the high end of the range, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Order commentary was also encouraging, with the company expecting positive yoy growth for the remainder of the year, the firm added.