Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 18,245 Shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)

Key Points

• Westwood Holdings Group Inc. reduced its stake in Danaher Corporation by 38.5% in the first quarter, selling 18,245 shares and ending with a total of 29,148 shares valued at approximately $5.98 million.
• Danaher reported an EPS of $1.80 for the recent quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.64, with revenue growing 3.4% year-over-year to $5.94 billion.
• Wall Street analysts have a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" for Danaher stock, with an average price target of $247.61, reflecting positive growth projections.

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lowered its stake in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 38.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,148 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 18,245 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.'s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,975,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its position in Danaher by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 192,731 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $44,241,000 after buying an additional 35,730 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC increased its position in Danaher by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 21,108 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $4,845,000 after buying an additional 2,107 shares during the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P increased its position in Danaher by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 1,507 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in Danaher by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,401,117 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $551,177,000 after buying an additional 350,815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP increased its position in Danaher by 38.6% during the fourth quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 17,685 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $4,060,000 after buying an additional 4,923 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, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was 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 directly owned 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America decreased their target price on Danaher from $265.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Scotiabank raised 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 decreased their target price on Danaher from $210.00 to $205.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Danaher from $230.00 to $226.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $247.61.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR traded up $2.21 on Friday, hitting $200.70. 2,963,091 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,823,699. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $198.46 and a 200-day moving average of $201.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher Corporation has a 52 week low of $171.00 and a 52 week high of $279.90. The stock has a market cap of $143.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.73.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.70% and a net margin of 14.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Danaher Corporation will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

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.