Swiss National Bank Cuts Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Swiss National Bank lowered its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,978,608 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 104,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.27% of Danaher worth $550,093,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,153 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $538,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in Danaher by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,231 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 1,230 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $307,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co of Kansas grew its holdings in Danaher by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Co of Kansas now owns 1,022 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $255,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 5,439 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,359,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Trading Down 3.7 %

DHR opened at $230.50 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $262.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $260.47. The company has a market capitalization of $166.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.99, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $206.30 and a 52 week high of $281.70. 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 (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business 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 was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James cut their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised their price objective on Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

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.