First City Capital Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

First City Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 760 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its stake in Danaher by 50.3% in the 1st quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,211 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,553,000 after purchasing an additional 2,079 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Investment Managers International grew its position in Danaher by 26.8% in the 1st quarter. Natixis Investment Managers International now owns 178,715 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $44,629,000 after purchasing an additional 37,729 shares during the period. Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new position in Danaher during the first quarter worth $98,913,000. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at about $230,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the first quarter valued at approximately $162,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp upped their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR opened at $229.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $261.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $260.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.76 billion, a PE ratio of 43.80, a P/E/G ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $207.63 and a 12-month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Danaher 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.