Howland Capital Management LLC Buys 662 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Howland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 177,427 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 662 shares during the period. Danaher comprises approximately 2.1% of Howland Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $44,354,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Tsfg LLC lifted its stake in Danaher by 733.3% in the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Danaher in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $4.07 during trading on Thursday, hitting $246.27. The stock had a trading volume of 2,793,164 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,861,634. The firm has a market cap of $182.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.05, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $182.09 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The business’s 50-day moving average is $255.06 and its 200 day moving average is $247.32.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released 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 return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.36 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 target price on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.67.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $2,386,325.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,990 shares in the company, valued at $28,352,350. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 46,377 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.05, for a total transaction of $11,735,699.85. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,407 shares in the company, valued at $7,441,441.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $2,386,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 106,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,352,350. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,783 shares of company stock valued at $37,536,717 over the last 90 days. 10.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.