Natixis Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 5.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 802,429 shares of the conglomerate's stock after acquiring an additional 39,029 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned 0.11% of Danaher worth $223,091,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after buying an additional 139,989 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,125,470 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,279,932,000 after purchasing an additional 52,679 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Danaher by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,398,649 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $849,195,000 after purchasing an additional 85,081 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Danaher by 22.7% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $761,475,000 after purchasing an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Danaher in the first quarter valued at $676,545,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Leerink Partners upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $287.16.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This represents a 18.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR stock traded down $8.88 during trading on Friday, reaching $230.50. The company had a trading volume of 5,435,775 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,760,084. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $262.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $260.38. The company has a market cap of $166.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.44 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $206.30 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. Danaher's quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

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.