Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Stake Boosted by Hardy Reed LLC

Hardy Reed LLC increased its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,461 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the period. Hardy Reed LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,518,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 4.6% in the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 6,898 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,723,000 after buying an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 1st quarter worth $153,000. Heartland Bank & Trust Co grew its stake in Danaher by 61.4% in the 1st quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co now owns 2,174 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 827 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in Danaher by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 7,949 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,985,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the period. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 15.2% during the first quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 12,873 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,215,000 after acquiring an additional 1,698 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock opened at $236.53 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $215.68 and a 52-week high of $281.70. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $256.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $259.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.14, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 20.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on DHR. Raymond James cut their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.