SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 10.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,009 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 113 shares during the quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Danaher by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,715,641,000 after purchasing an additional 315,912 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after acquiring an additional 315,446 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Danaher by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after acquiring an additional 441,012 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Danaher by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,934,991 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,821,477,000 after purchasing an additional 992,594 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $196.13 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $191.34 and a 200 day moving average of $212.03. The stock has a market cap of $140.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $263.24.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,005,442. This trade represents a 51.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total value of $245,925,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher 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.