Avestar Capital LLC Increases Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Avestar Capital LLC grew its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,810 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the quarter. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at $55,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth $51,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on DHR. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.16.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $236.53 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $215.68 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50 day moving average of $256.66 and a 200-day moving average of $259.81. The firm has a market cap of $170.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.14, a PEG ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 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.