Empirical Finance LLC Grows Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,629 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 483 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $6,291,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of DHR. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter worth approximately $51,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Western Pacific Wealth Management LP bought a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at $55,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Leerink Partners upped their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Down 0.5 %

DHR stock opened at $238.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $171.96 billion, a PE ratio of 45.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.85. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $263.42 and its 200 day moving average is $260.64. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $206.30 and a one year high of $281.70.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.