Palisade Asset Management LLC Trims Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Palisade Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,059 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 955 shares during the period. Palisade Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 3.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at about $363,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its holdings in Danaher by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after purchasing an additional 2,465 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co boosted its position in Danaher by 75.4% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,360 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 1,874 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $235.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $170.34 billion, a PE ratio of 45.01, a P/E/G ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $215.68 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $258.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $259.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share 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 $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.61%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value 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. The trade was a 18.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James reduced their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

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.