Bellevue Group AG Grows Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Bellevue Group AG increased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 86,232 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,922 shares during the quarter. Bellevue Group AG’s holdings in Danaher were worth $21,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Tsfg LLC grew its holdings in Danaher by 733.3% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 19,085 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $4,866,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,578,725. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 84,775 shares of company stock worth $21,802,690. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Danaher from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. SVB Leerink upped their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Danaher from $271.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Danaher from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $276.88.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded up $3.82 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $273.91. 2,810,147 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,314,172. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $255.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $249.35. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $182.09 and a 1-year high of $277.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $197.82 billion, a PE ratio of 46.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

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.