Braun Stacey Associates Inc. Sells 2,179 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Braun Stacey Associates Inc. lessened its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,007 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,179 shares during the period. Braun Stacey Associates Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $23,912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Danaher in the first quarter valued at approximately $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Danaher by 99.0% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,473,000 after purchasing an additional 675,952 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Danaher by 22.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Danaher by 40,196.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new stake in Danaher during the 1st quarter valued at $98,913,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 18.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on DHR. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $230.50 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $262.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $260.57. 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 12-month low of $206.30 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $166.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.99, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

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.