Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) EVP Sells $5,618,569.18 in Stock

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total value of $5,618,569.18. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,644,589.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR traded up $0.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $246.45. 2,710,445 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,785,746. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $248.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $230.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $182.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.36 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Danaher

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $1,752,382,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 18.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,185,203,000 after buying an additional 3,905,449 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in Danaher by 214.4% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,619,586 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Danaher by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,691,735,000 after acquiring an additional 1,334,781 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on DHR shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their price target on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Six 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.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.