Fifth Third Bancorp Sells 22,270 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Fifth Third Bancorp trimmed its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 500,256 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 22,270 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Danaher were worth $102,552,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $2,130,740,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake 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 during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $391,172,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake 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 during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, 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 transaction 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 trade represents a 51.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 3,105,808 shares in the company, valued at $611,036,665.92. This trade represents a 28.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of DHR stock opened at $204.62 on Thursday. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $211.67. The company has a market cap of $146.44 billion, a PE ratio of 38.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company 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 0.63%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on DHR. Wall Street Zen cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $248.17.

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.