Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Bought by XTX Topco Ltd

XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 673.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 14,256 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,414 shares during the period. Danaher makes up 0.3% of XTX Topco Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Danaher were worth $3,562,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after acquiring an additional 4,163,657 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Danaher by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after buying an additional 2,998,161 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at about $676,545,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in shares of Danaher by 214.4% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,073,661 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $711,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after acquiring an additional 1,619,586 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $271.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.94.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value 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 $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Stock Down 0.2 %

DHR stock opened at $271.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $201.39 billion, a PE ratio of 46.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $266.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $256.89. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. Danaher’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.05 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

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.