Paloma Partners Management Co Boosts Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Paloma Partners Management Co increased its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 562.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,098 shares of the conglomerate's stock after acquiring an additional 32,350 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co's holdings in Danaher were worth $10,592,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $66,194,000 after buying an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth $217,000. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at $363,000. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $56,233,000 after acquiring an additional 2,465 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 75.4% during the 2nd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,360 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,090,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR traded up $1.00 on Monday, reaching $240.69. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,197,680 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,754,166. The stock has a market capitalization of $173.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.74, a PEG ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $215.68 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The stock's 50-day moving average is $254.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $259.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 27th. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.61%.

Danaher 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.