Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Has $81.75 Million Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lowered its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 327,199 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 820 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $81,751,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,460,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Danaher during the first quarter valued at approximately $676,545,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 214.4% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $711,051,000 after buying an additional 2,096,038 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Danaher by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after buying an additional 1,619,586 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Danaher in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares in the company, valued at $27,435,240. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $272.63 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $201.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $267.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $257.14. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.05 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

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.