Howard Capital Management Group LLC Purchases 48 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,107,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,009,928,000 after purchasing an additional 4,163,657 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after buying an additional 139,989 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,125,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,279,932,000 after acquiring an additional 52,679 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Danaher by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,398,649 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $849,195,000 after buying an additional 85,081 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 22.7% in the second 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 period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Danaher in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Stephens initiated coverage on Danaher in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $315.00 target price for the company. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $282.12.

Danaher Stock Up 1.5 %

Danaher stock opened at $272.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $201.47 billion, a PE ratio of 46.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.43. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $281.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $270.60 and a 200 day moving average of $259.73.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.15. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.05 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.59 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 9,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total value of $2,521,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 97,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,435,240. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 9,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.16, for a total value of $2,641,536.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,566,486.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 39,659 shares of company stock valued at $11,042,433. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.