The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Reduces Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company trimmed its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,860,099 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 126,168 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Danaher were worth $517,144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Danaher during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter worth $40,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher in the second quarter valued at $51,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays decreased their price target 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. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock opened at $237.65 on Tuesday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $257.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $259.93. The company has a market capitalization of $171.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.34 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $215.68 and a 12-month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released 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 return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

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