Hartford Investment Management Co. Lowers Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Hartford Investment Management Co. decreased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,462 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 1,777 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $11,249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Danaher by 2.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after acquiring an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Danaher by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,125,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,279,932,000 after purchasing an additional 52,679 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Danaher by 2.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,398,649 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $849,195,000 after purchasing 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 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on DHR. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $282.65.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total value of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction 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 represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 in the last quarter. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE DHR traded down $3.22 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $258.06. 281,426 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,712,989. The company has a market cap of $191.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.99, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $270.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $260.46. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. 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.