Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Reduces Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 13,939 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 58 shares during the quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $3,875,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Danaher by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after acquiring an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Danaher by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,125,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,279,932,000 after acquiring an additional 52,679 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Danaher by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,398,649 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $849,195,000 after acquiring an additional 85,081 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Danaher by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after acquiring an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 1st quarter worth about $676,545,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $229.47 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $207.63 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $262.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $260.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $165.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.99, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

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.