Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by USS Investment Management Ltd

USS Investment Management Ltd cut its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 126,149 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 9,405 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Danaher were worth $28,966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 7,390 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Spinnaker Trust raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 4,304 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,983 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $914,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fayez Sarofim & Co raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 8,287 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,902,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total value of $245,925,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of DHR opened at $196.33 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $196.69 and a 200 day moving average of $216.91. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $140.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

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.