Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Magnetar Financial LLC

Magnetar Financial LLC cut its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 86.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,646 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 121,857 shares during the quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,659,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the second quarter worth about $363,000. Caden Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Danaher by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Caden Capital Partners LP now owns 139,068 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $32,172,000 after acquiring an additional 15,313 shares during the last quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd boosted its position in Danaher by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. JARISLOWSKY FRASER Ltd now owns 572,858 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $132,524,000 after acquiring an additional 55,908 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $2,614,000. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the first quarter worth about $4,151,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total transaction of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now 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. Insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock worth $11,042,433 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $272.63 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $267.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $257.19. The company has a market cap of $201.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.21, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $2.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. Leerink Partners boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a report on Friday, September 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.94.

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.