Heritage Investors Management Corp Lowers Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Heritage Investors Management Corp lowered its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,638 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 240 shares during the period. Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,289,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% during the first 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. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Danaher during the first quarter worth about $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Danaher by 99.0% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $339,473,000 after purchasing an additional 675,952 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Danaher by 22.7% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 40,196.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $250.16 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $192.35 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $266.16 and its 200 day moving average is $260.84. The company has a market cap of $180.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.74, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.61%.

Danaher Company 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.