AE Wealth Management LLC Acquires 1,518 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 10.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 15,619 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,518 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $3,903,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,009,928,000 after acquiring an additional 4,163,657 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after purchasing an additional 2,998,161 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,876,694,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,586 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,691,735,000 after purchasing an additional 1,334,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edgewood Management LLC raised its position in Danaher by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 6,381,293 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,476,248,000 after purchasing an additional 454,950 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $272.63 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a market capitalization of $201.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50-day moving average of $267.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $257.19.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.05 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th will be given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 price target for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.94.

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.