West Oak Capital LLC Sells 95 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

West Oak Capital LLC reduced its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,316 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 95 shares during the quarter. West Oak Capital LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,115,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of DHR. Tran Capital Management L.P. boosted its position in Danaher by 4.6% during the first quarter. Tran Capital Management L.P. now owns 190,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $39,056,000 after purchasing an additional 8,328 shares during the period. Zhang Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 3.6% in the first quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 1,774 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $364,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Alpha Omega Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Alpha Omega Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,646 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,002,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its holdings in Danaher by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 3,004 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $616,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Curbstone Financial Management Corp raised its position in Danaher by 11.2% during the first quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,966 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total transaction of $245,925,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total value of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,179 shares in the company, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. TD Cowen raised their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Leerink Partners raised their price objective on Danaher from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wolfe Research lowered their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $220.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $248.17.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $204.62 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $146.44 billion, a PE ratio of 38.75, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $191.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $211.67. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $171.00 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, June 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.85%.

About Danaher

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.