Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) Shares Acquired by Eastern Bank

Eastern Bank boosted its position in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 75.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 183,575 shares of the conglomerate's stock after buying an additional 79,018 shares during the period. Eastern Bank's holdings in Danaher were worth $37,633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 396.0% during the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 124 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Sierra Ocean LLC grew its position in Danaher by 116.9% during the first quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC now owns 141 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Danaher in the first quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank upgraded Danaher from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and set a $275.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $210.00 to $205.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, April 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $247.61.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total value of $245,925,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman owned 3,105,808 shares of the company's stock, valued at $611,036,665.92. The trade was a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Down 1.3%

DHR stock traded down $2.61 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $204.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,692,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,032,979. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.46, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $196.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $203.24. Danaher Corporation has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.16. Danaher had a net margin of 14.21% and a return on equity of 10.70%. The company had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. Danaher's revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Corporation will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, June 27th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio is presently 27.23%.

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.