Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Stock Position Raised by Aries Wealth Management

Aries Wealth Management lifted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 22.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 507 shares during the quarter. Aries Wealth Management’s holdings in Danaher were worth $559,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund lifted its position in Danaher by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 21,233 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $4,874,000 after buying an additional 2,202 shares in the last quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. lifted its position in Danaher by 20.6% in the 4th quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 9,597 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,203,000 after buying an additional 1,639 shares in the last quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,591,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Danaher by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,066,755 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $933,524,000 after buying an additional 135,047 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Danaher by 24.4% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 254,327 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $58,308,000 after buying an additional 49,964 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,005,442. This trade represents a 51.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on DHR. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Leerink Partners increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $248.17.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $200.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $143.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s fifty day moving average is $192.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $211.00. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70.

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

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.85%.

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.