Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 58,911 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,056,976 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 58,911 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $849,901,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norden Group LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at $276,000. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.3% in the first quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 18,138 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,529,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP acquired a new stake in Danaher during the first quarter worth about $5,573,000. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 3.5% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 23,575 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,887,000 after acquiring an additional 796 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in Danaher by 18.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 71,432 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $17,838,000 after acquiring an additional 11,221 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Leerink Partners lifted their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $247.81 on Thursday. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $192.35 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $178.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $265.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $260.75.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

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.