Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) SVP Sells $1,000,040.00 in Stock

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,000,040.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,457,798.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR traded down $4.59 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $245.82. The company had a trading volume of 2,943,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,786,286. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $230.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $182.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.44, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released 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 business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.36 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.31%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Danaher by 12.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Danaher by 10.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Danaher by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,691,735,000 after buying an additional 1,334,781 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 6.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,183,501 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,030,327,000 after buying an additional 502,868 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Danaher by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,100,722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,009,789,000 after acquiring an additional 134,905 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $270.00.

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.