State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $68.56 Million Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 246,596 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 12,313 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Danaher were worth $68,559,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,194,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at about $363,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after buying an additional 2,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 75.4% in the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,360 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,090,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on DHR. Wolfe Research raised Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James reduced their target price 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. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock traded down $0.71 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $245.39. 2,941,170 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,802,560. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $264.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $260.77. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $192.35 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $177.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.83, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

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 yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

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.