Advisory Services Network LLC Acquires 55 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Advisory Services Network LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,138 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 73,391 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $18,208,000 after purchasing an additional 9,798 shares during the period. Okabena Investment Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $686,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 19.4% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,735,073 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $430,472,000 after acquiring an additional 282,089 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Danaher by 18.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after acquiring an additional 3,905,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Insights Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at about $371,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.67.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR traded up $1.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $247.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 508,232 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,843,939. The company has a market cap of $183.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.74, a PEG ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $255.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $247.31. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $269.11.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,908,273.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 148,783 shares of company stock worth $37,536,717. Corporate 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.