Kanawha Capital Management LLC Buys New Shares in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Kanawha Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 780 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Danaher by 7.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Danaher by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after buying an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Danaher by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,125,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,279,932,000 after buying an additional 52,679 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Danaher by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,398,649 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $849,195,000 after buying an additional 85,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 22.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after acquiring an additional 563,546 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James dropped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $247.18 on Tuesday. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $192.35 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $266.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $260.74. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $178.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

About Danaher

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.