World Equity Group Inc. Purchases 328 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

World Equity Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,572 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 328 shares during the period. World Equity Group Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $715,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC increased its position in Danaher by 3.2% in the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,194,000 after buying an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth about $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $363,000. Duality Advisers LP bought a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter worth approximately $5,573,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in Danaher by 75.4% during the 2nd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,360 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,090,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock traded up $2.75 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $250.51. 168,186 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,740,385. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $192.35 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The business has a 50 day moving average of $266.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $260.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays dropped their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

About Danaher

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.