BNP Paribas Buys 240 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

BNP Paribas raised its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 15.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,806 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 240 shares during the period. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Danaher were worth $502,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth about $51,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $238.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $172.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $215.68 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $256.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $259.66.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays reduced their target price 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. 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 note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

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.