Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Grows Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 17.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 16,940 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,499 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,713,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter valued at $230,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at about $250,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,277 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,317,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.4% during the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. now owns 42,598 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $10,638,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 298.2% during the first quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 140,503 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $35,086,000 after buying an additional 105,216 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of DHR stock opened at $234.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $215.68 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.56 billion, a PE ratio of 44.80, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $259.96.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 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.