Cowa LLC Decreases Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Cowa LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,742 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 150 shares during the quarter. Cowa LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $685,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its holdings in Danaher by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,830 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $423,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Danaher by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,632 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $840,000 after acquiring an additional 414 shares in the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $675,000 after acquiring an additional 468 shares during the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 1,469 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $340,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Danaher by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 215 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $276.43 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $267.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $257.03. The company has a market cap of $204.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. 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 results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.05 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,566,486.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total value of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $5,566,486.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,435,240. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 in the last quarter. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a report on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 price target for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.94.

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.