B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Acquires New Shares in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 278,089 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $77,314,000. Danaher accounts for 0.8% of B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in Danaher by 1.8% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,153 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in Danaher by 3.2% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,231 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. grew its stake in Danaher by 3.4% in the second quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 1,230 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co of Kansas grew its stake in Danaher by 4.1% in the second quarter. Trust Co of Kansas now owns 1,022 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its stake in Danaher by 0.7% in the second quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 5,439 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,359,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on DHR. Leerink Partners boosted their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James decreased their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was 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 directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Danaher Trading Down 0.4 %

Danaher stock opened at $229.50 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $261.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $260.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $165.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $207.63 and a 12 month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its 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 return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 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.