Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 9.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 25,096 shares of the conglomerate's stock after purchasing an additional 2,122 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.'s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,145,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of DHR. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 29.6% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 148,893 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $30,523,000 after buying an additional 33,970 shares during the last quarter. XML Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 30.2% in the 1st quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 6,380 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,308,000 after buying an additional 1,481 shares during the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 2,537 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 22.2% in the 1st quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 65,643 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $13,457,000 after buying an additional 11,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 10,149 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $2,081,000 after buying an additional 1,221 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Leerink Partners increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $270.00 to $240.00 in a report on Friday, April 25th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $248.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Danaher currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $248.61.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR stock traded down $3.26 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $198.20. 5,619,393 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,505,541. Danaher Corporation has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The stock has a market cap of $141.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.48, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock's 50-day moving average is $194.84 and its 200 day moving average is $208.33.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 15.81% and a return on equity of 10.80%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Danaher Corporation will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Danaher's payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.74, for a total transaction of $245,925,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,179 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

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.