Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Position Boosted by Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,834 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 422 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 96,490.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,287,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,180,839,000 after purchasing an additional 23,262,904 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 1.0% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,900,685 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,243,696,000 after purchasing an additional 126,062 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,057,164,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Danaher by 12.3% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,440,410 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,875,281,000 after purchasing an additional 812,475 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Danaher by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,852,751 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,321,312,000 after purchasing an additional 375,805 shares during the period. 76.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE DHR opened at $255.25 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $221.22 and a 1-year high of $283.63. The company has a current ratio of 2.08, a quick ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a market capitalization of $188.46 billion, a PE ratio of 29.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $253.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.09.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The conglomerate reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $7.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.12 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 20.95% and a return on equity of 15.03%. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 8.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 12th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 11th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 12.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,439 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total transaction of $5,910,881.38. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,362,456.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Danaher news, SVP Jose-Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos sold 590 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.54, for a total transaction of $147,818.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 6,939 shares in the company, valued at $1,738,497.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,439 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.42, for a total transaction of $5,910,881.38. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,362,456.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 47,922 shares of company stock valued at $12,552,233 over the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on Danaher from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Danaher from $270.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $292.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, September 12th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Five investment 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 company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.79.

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; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.