Vicus Capital Decreases Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Vicus Capital lowered its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,018 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 120 shares during the period. Vicus Capital’s holdings in Danaher were worth $283,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Danaher by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after buying an additional 4,163,657 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $676,545,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Danaher by 99.0% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,358,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $339,473,000 after buying an additional 675,952 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Danaher by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,047,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $761,475,000 after buying an additional 563,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP purchased a new position in Danaher in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $98,913,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Matthew Mcgrew sold 16,172 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.84, for a total transaction of $4,525,572.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,407 shares in the company, valued at $8,229,254.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Leerink Partners lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Friday, September 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $282.12.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $261.28 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43. The company has a market capitalization of $193.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a fifty day moving average of $270.67 and a 200-day moving average of $260.46.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.06%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.05 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

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.