West Paces Advisors Inc. Trims Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

West Paces Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.3% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,900 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 65 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $390,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 21,233 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,874,000 after buying an additional 2,202 shares during the last quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 20.6% in the 4th quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 9,597 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,639 shares in the last quarter. Channing Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 42.8% in the 4th quarter. Channing Global Advisors LLC now owns 5,666 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698 shares in the last quarter. Elevate Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $829,000. Finally, Quilter Plc increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 62,371 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $14,317,000 after purchasing an additional 2,746 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus cut their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, HSBC cut their price target on Danaher from $270.00 to $240.00 in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $248.17.

Danaher Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $199.26 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $142.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $211.78. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $171.00 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. Analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,005,442. The trade was a 51.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total transaction of $245,925,000.00. Following the sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. The trade was a 28.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.