Strengthening Families & Communities LLC Increases Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Strengthening Families & Communities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,913 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.2% during the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $66,194,000 after buying an additional 7,421 shares during the period. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the second quarter valued at approximately $363,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $56,233,000 after acquiring an additional 2,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 75.4% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $230.50 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $206.30 and a one year 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. The firm has a market cap of $166.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.99, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $262.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $260.57.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company 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 of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s 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 owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.