Insider Selling: Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) CEO Sells 47,175 Shares of Stock

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total value of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $246.45 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $259.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $248.87 and a 200 day moving average of $231.08. The company has a market capitalization of $182.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.36 EPS. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on DHR shares. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $270.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Tsfg LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 733.3% in the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 100 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Danaher in the third quarter worth about $30,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.