Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Cigna Investments Inc. New

Cigna Investments Inc. New reduced its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,703 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 297 shares during the quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,864,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after acquiring an additional 4,163,657 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Danaher during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Danaher by 99.0% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $339,473,000 after buying an additional 675,952 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Danaher by 22.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after buying an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 40,196.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $119,539,000 after acquiring an additional 428,897 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on DHR. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Up 1.4 %

DHR stock opened at $245.66 on Friday. 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 $177.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $188.75 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $267.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.32.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 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 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 20.61%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.