Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Stake Lessened by American Trust

American Trust reduced its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,069 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 872 shares during the period. American Trust’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,409,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $234.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $169.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $219.15 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $257.62.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DHR. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

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.