Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. Acquires 50 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $367,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,752,382,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,998,161 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 214.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $711,051,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,038 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $3.54 on Tuesday, hitting $275.19. The stock had a trading volume of 2,953,156 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,917,059. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $277.72. The business’s 50 day moving average is $255.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $250.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $198.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.84.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.05 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $5,566,486.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the sale, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 84,775 shares of company stock worth $21,802,690. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays lifted their target price on Danaher from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. HSBC raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $276.88.

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.