Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Stock Holdings Lowered by Lincoln National Corp

Lincoln National Corp trimmed its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,026 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 287 shares during the period. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,088,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Danaher by 18.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after buying an additional 3,905,449 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Danaher by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,100,722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,009,789,000 after acquiring an additional 134,905 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 4,601,351 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,064,477,000 after purchasing an additional 82,672 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,227,108 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $977,900,000 after purchasing an additional 248,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Danaher by 13.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,070,455 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,009,880,000 after purchasing an additional 473,693 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares in the company, valued at $28,908,273.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 103,984 shares of company stock worth $25,997,094 over the last 90 days. 10.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on DHR. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $267.31.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $0.18 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $248.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 236,769 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,715,930. The firm has a market cap of $184.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $248.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $233.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.85. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $259.00.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.36 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

About Danaher

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.