Sawgrass Asset Management LLC Has $7.71 Million Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC reduced its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 27,718 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 663 shares during the quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $7,706,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 1st quarter worth $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Danaher by 99.0% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,473,000 after buying an additional 675,952 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 22.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $761,475,000 after buying an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 40,196.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after acquiring an additional 428,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 1st quarter valued at about $98,913,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $230.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $166.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $262.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.47. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $206.30 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37.

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

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 18.44 % 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.

Danaher Company 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.