Centricity Wealth Management LLC Trims Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Centricity Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 138 shares during the quarter. Centricity Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $172,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 24,958.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,870,847 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $383,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,863,381 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at $391,172,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in Danaher by 4,248.8% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,639,500 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $376,347,000 after buying an additional 1,601,800 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in Danaher by 32.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,361,183 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,460,215,000 after buying an additional 1,566,658 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $263.24.

Danaher Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $196.13 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $140.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.15, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $171.00 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $212.03.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. Equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 24.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $611,036,665.92. This represents a 28.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total value of $3,129,390.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Company 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.