Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Purchased by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,777,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,766 shares during the period. Danaher accounts for about 1.4% of Blair William & Co. IL’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Blair William & Co. IL owned about 0.24% of Danaher worth $443,991,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,460,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the first quarter worth approximately $676,545,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 214.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Danaher by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Friday, September 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Danaher from $271.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Leerink Partners boosted their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.94.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock opened at $272.48 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a market capitalization of $201.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $265.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $256.78.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.31%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares in the company, valued at $27,435,240. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,435,240. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock worth $11,042,433. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.