Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Acquired by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 15.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,011 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,880 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $3,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Danaher by 1.4% in the first quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 2,880 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $719,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. increased its position in Danaher by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 1,899 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Berger Financial Group Inc lifted its holdings in Danaher by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc now owns 2,517 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $582,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $803,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. increased its position in Danaher by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 4,329 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $295.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.67.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $240.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,935,837 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,506,555. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $177.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $255.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $246.91.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total value of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,908,273.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,783 shares of company stock worth $37,536,717 over the last three months. 10.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Profile

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.