Savvy Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 402.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,349 shares of the conglomerate's stock after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Danaher by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,490,112,000 after acquiring an additional 139,989 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Danaher by 1.0% during 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 raised its holdings in shares of 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. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $761,475,000 after acquiring an additional 563,546 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total value of $255,488.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,212 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,130,374.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR traded down $3.66 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $239.59. 3,077,000 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,748,831. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $264.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $260.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $193.75 and a 12 month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The business'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 posted $2.02 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th were paid a $0.27 dividend. 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 payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

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.