Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Chairman Steven M. Rales Sells 1,250,000 Shares of Stock

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total value of $245,925,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at $611,036,665.92. This trade represents a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Danaher Stock Down 4.2%

DHR stock opened at $188.32 on Thursday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $171.00 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $134.77 billion, a PE ratio of 35.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a 50 day moving average of $197.35 and a 200 day moving average of $218.33.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.85%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DHR. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 265.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,295,000 after purchasing an additional 4,097 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 5,618 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,321,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 778.9% in the 4th quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 9,808 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,252,000 after buying an additional 8,692 shares during the last quarter. Courier Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Courier Capital LLC now owns 2,106 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $483,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shorepath Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Shorepath Capital Management LLC now owns 31,497 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $7,230,000 after buying an additional 4,462 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

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.