WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. Grows Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 15,785 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 810 shares during the period. WealthBridge Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $3,942,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Alpine Global Management LLC bought a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,489,000. Glenmede Trust Co. NA lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 53,766 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,954 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Danaher by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,983 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,725,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Danaher by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,633,999 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $405,390,000 after acquiring an additional 102,647 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Danaher by 441.1% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 24,795 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,152,000 after purchasing an additional 20,213 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $295.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America upped their target price on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, HSBC raised 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 research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,000,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,830 shares in the company, valued at $7,457,798.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total transaction of $5,618,569.18. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at $22,644,589.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,000,040.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,830 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,457,798.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 148,783 shares of company stock valued at $37,536,717. Corporate insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.41 on Thursday, reaching $240.00. 1,935,837 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,506,555. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $255.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $246.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.68, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.36 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.