National Pension Service Purchases 88,197 Shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)

Key Points

• The National Pension Service increased its ownership of Danaher Corporation by 6.6%, acquiring 88,197 additional shares, bringing their total to 1,415,437 shares valued at approximately $290.17 million.
• Danaher reported better-than-expected earnings per share of $1.80 for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates of $1.64, with revenue up 3.4% year-over-year.
• Analysts have varying price targets for Danaher, with a consensus target price of $247.61 and 18 out of 21 analysts assigning it a buy rating.

National Pension Service lifted its holdings in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 6.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,415,437 shares of the conglomerate's stock after purchasing an additional 88,197 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.20% of Danaher worth $290,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the first quarter worth $833,941,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 24,958.2% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,870,847 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $383,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,863,381 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 4,248.8% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,639,500 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $376,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,601,800 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 32.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,361,183 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,460,215,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566,658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Danaher by 44.5% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,708,578 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $965,259,000 after buying an additional 1,450,703 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $0.62 during trading on Friday, reaching $210.84. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,210,213 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,658,279. The business's 50-day moving average price is $199.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $199.87. The firm has a market cap of $150.97 billion, a PE ratio of 44.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.73. Danaher Corporation has a 52 week low of $171.00 and a 52 week high of $279.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on DHR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $225.00 target price (up from $215.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $230.00 to $226.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $235.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price 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.