Banco Santander S.A. Buys 574 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Banco Santander S.A. increased its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 21.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,298 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 574 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $824,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Danaher by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,460,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Danaher by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,876,694,000 after acquiring an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Danaher by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,691,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,334,781 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,752,382,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Danaher by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,620,170 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,531,510,000 after acquiring an additional 395,498 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.67.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR traded down $1.25 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $243.54. The stock had a trading volume of 2,982,627 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,074,608. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $254.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $248.06. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $269.11. The firm has a market cap of $180.39 billion, a PE ratio of 41.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 46,377 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.05, for a total transaction of $11,735,699.85. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,441,441.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,783 shares of company stock valued at $37,536,717 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.