SpiderRock Advisors LLC Purchases 3,742 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

SpiderRock Advisors LLC lifted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 26.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,862 shares of the conglomerate's stock after purchasing an additional 3,742 shares during the quarter. SpiderRock Advisors LLC's holdings in Danaher were worth $4,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Danaher during the second quarter worth $25,000. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at $25,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at $51,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Western Pacific Wealth Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the first quarter valued at $55,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded 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. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com upgraded Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $287.16.

Danaher Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.71 during trading on Friday, hitting $245.39. 2,941,170 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,802,560. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 0.85. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $192.35 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $264.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $260.71. 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 released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. Danaher's revenue for the quarter 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 fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 952 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.37, for a total transaction of $255,488.24. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,212 shares in the company, valued at $1,130,374.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.