Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Bought by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,629 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 483 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $6,291,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Connable Office Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.4% in the third quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 14,130 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,928,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. King Wealth Management Group purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $218,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 204,363 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,780,000 after buying an additional 6,086 shares during the last quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC now owns 12,636 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,513,000 after buying an additional 1,384 shares during the period. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Danaher by 4.5% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,812 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,230,000 after acquiring an additional 807 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $238.08 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $263.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $260.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $206.30 and a one year high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $171.96 billion, a PE ratio of 45.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.61%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.