Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Has $15.31 Million Stock Position in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)

Key Points

• Middleton & Co. Inc. MA reduced its stake in Danaher Corporation by 3.2%, selling 2,496 shares and holding 74,673 shares valued at approximately $15.3 million.
• Danaher reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.80, surpassing estimates and showing a 3.4% year-over-year revenue increase to $5.94 billion.
• The stock saw analyst price targets adjusted, with some analysts lowering their targets significantly across the board, while maintaining a overall consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA decreased its holdings in shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 74,673 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 2,496 shares during the period. Danaher makes up about 1.8% of Middleton & Co. Inc. MA's holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA's holdings in Danaher were worth $15,308,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its holdings in Danaher by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 192,731 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $44,241,000 after purchasing an additional 35,730 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 5,217 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,198,000 after acquiring an additional 928 shares in the last quarter. Trek Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 41.9% during the 4th quarter. Trek Financial LLC now owns 4,321 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $992,000 after buying an additional 1,275 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at $55,161,000. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at $918,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chairman directly owned 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. The trade was a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Down 1.9%

DHR traded down $3.70 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $195.34. 5,123,027 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,690,992. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $197.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $201.85. The company has a market cap of $139.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.56, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.73. Danaher Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $279.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on DHR. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Danaher from $230.00 to $226.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $225.00 price objective (up from $215.00) on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $247.61.

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.