Advisor Resource Council Buys Shares of 1,014 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Advisor Resource Council bought a new position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,014 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 7.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter valued at $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 99.0% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $339,473,000 after purchasing an additional 675,952 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Danaher by 22.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Danaher by 40,196.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. KeyCorp increased their price target on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 10.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $246.10 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $192.35 and a one year high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $177.75 billion, a PE ratio of 46.97, a PEG ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $265.79 and a 200-day moving average of $260.75.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its 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. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

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.