Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Purchased by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,925 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,984,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Danaher during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in Danaher in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter worth about $30,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the second quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the second quarter worth approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on DHR. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $287.28.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.52 on Wednesday, hitting $242.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 704,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,733,801. The company has a market capitalization of $179.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $188.75 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $268.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $260.55. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 16,172 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 29,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,229,254.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,052 shares of company stock worth $5,878,937. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Company 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.