Watchtower Advisors LP Makes New $10.45 Million Investment in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Watchtower Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 37,600 shares of the conglomerate's stock, valued at approximately $10,454,000. Danaher comprises about 4.8% of Watchtower Advisors LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of DHR. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $7,876,000. Wills Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.1% in the third quarter. Wills Financial Group Inc. now owns 41,219 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $11,460,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP bought a new position in Danaher during the third quarter valued at approximately $10,481,000. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc boosted its holdings in Danaher by 3.5% in the third quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc now owns 33,260 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $9,247,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP grew its position in Danaher by 56.8% in the 3rd quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 2,694 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $749,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. Stephens restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James decreased their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $287.16.

Danaher Trading Up 1.0 %

DHR stock traded up $2.25 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $230.12. 3,060,478 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,776,154. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.97, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83. 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 business has a 50 day moving average of $251.66 and a 200-day moving average of $258.69. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $215.68 and a 52-week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. Danaher's payout ratio 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.