Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 82.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,046 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 146,155 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $7,503,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $1,752,382,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Danaher by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after buying an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in Danaher by 214.4% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after buying an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Danaher by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after buying an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Danaher from $297.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $295.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $276.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 19,085 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $4,866,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,578,725. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 46,377 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.05, for a total value of $11,735,699.85. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,441,441.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 19,085 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.00, for a total transaction of $4,866,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,578,725. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 84,775 shares of company stock worth $21,802,690 in the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $274.13 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $197.98 billion, a PE ratio of 46.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $255.16 and a 200 day moving average of $249.35. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $277.72.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

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.