KBC Group NV Acquires 76,017 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

KBC Group NV raised its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 36.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 282,386 shares of the conglomerate's stock after purchasing an additional 76,017 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV's holdings in Danaher were worth $78,508,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its holdings in Danaher by 1.8% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,153 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $538,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,231 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 1,230 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Trust Co of Kansas lifted its stake in Danaher by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co of Kansas now owns 1,022 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 0.7% during the second quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 5,439 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,359,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com raised shares of Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $285.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $287.16.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR traded down $1.70 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $239.83. 1,414,772 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,740,127. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $263.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $260.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $204.15 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $173.22 billion, a PE ratio of 46.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. Danaher's revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Danaher's dividend payout ratio is 20.61%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.