Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Acquires 1,091 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,927 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,091 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $6,930,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after acquiring an additional 4,163,657 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Danaher during the first quarter worth $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 99.0% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,473,000 after buying an additional 675,952 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 22.7% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after acquiring an additional 563,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Danaher by 40,196.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America increased their target price on Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.28.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,130,374.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $242.32 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $267.83 and a 200-day moving average of $260.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.07, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $188.75 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.31%.

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.