Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,779,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter worth $25,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the second quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter worth about $51,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Leerink Partners boosted their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $230.76 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $260.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $260.32. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $166.67 billion, a PE ratio of 44.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $207.63 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related 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 value of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.