Park Avenue Securities LLC Has $6.15 Million Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 15.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 26,793 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,540 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $6,150,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC raised its position in Danaher by 3.2% during the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $66,194,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $217,000. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1,212.8% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $56,233,000 after purchasing an additional 2,465 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Danaher by 1.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $235,583,000 after purchasing an additional 11,216 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $237.78 on Thursday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $222.53 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $171.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.38, a PEG ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $235.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $253.56.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 20.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays lowered their price target on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $286.80.

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.