Trust Co of the South Makes New Investment in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Trust Co of the South purchased a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,339 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $372,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Tsfg LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 733.3% during the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Danaher from $271.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Leerink Partners lifted their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $282.12.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $273.95 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $271.14 and its 200-day moving average is $258.35. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.43, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total value of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. 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 three months. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Danaher

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.