Groupe la Francaise Acquires 94,750 Shares of Danaher Corporation $DHR

Groupe la Francaise boosted its stake in shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) by 363.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 120,835 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 94,750 shares during the quarter. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Danaher were worth $23,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $333,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,627,803 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $519,096,000 after buying an additional 397,677 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its position in shares of Danaher by 179.9% during the second quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 52,622 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $10,395,000 after acquiring an additional 33,823 shares during the last quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 57.5% during the second quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 99,654 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $19,686,000 after acquiring an additional 36,384 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 7.5% in the second quarter. Boston Family Office LLC now owns 40,260 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $7,953,000 after acquiring an additional 2,794 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,298 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.50, for a total transaction of $746,997.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 20,762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,702,593. This represents a 13.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 5,174 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.42, for a total transaction of $1,088,713.08. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,625 shares in the company, valued at $552,352.50. This represents a 66.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 30,248 shares of company stock worth $6,609,663. 11.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Redburn Partners set a $220.00 price objective on Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $270.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “positive” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $226.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.75.

Danaher Trading Up 1.2%

DHR opened at $226.82 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $213.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $203.77. The firm has a market cap of $160.21 billion, a PE ratio of 46.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.89. Danaher Corporation has a twelve month low of $171.00 and a twelve month high of $258.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.52.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 20th. The conglomerate reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 14.44% and a return on equity of 10.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.71 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher Corporation will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 26th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 26th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.39%.

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.