Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. decreased its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,317 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 77 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,326,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $266.00 to $260.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partners increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares in the company, valued at $27,435,240. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Danaher news, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 16,172 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $279.84, for a total transaction of $4,525,572.48. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 29,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,229,254.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,435,240. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,659 shares of company stock worth $11,042,433 in the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $272.63 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $201.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.21, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $267.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $257.14. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted 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 business had revenue of $5.74 billion during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.05 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 is currently 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.