Ascent Group LLC Acquires 512 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 30.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,205 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Linda Filler sold 3,928 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.50, for a total transaction of $1,097,876.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 41,149 shares in the company, valued at $11,501,145.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,659 shares of company stock worth $11,042,433. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $282.12.

Danaher Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $274.54 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $270.98 and a 200-day moving average of $258.24. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $281.70. The stock has a market cap of $203.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.53, a P/E/G ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

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

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.