Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 41.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,243 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,965 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,585,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $2,130,740,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew 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 valued at $383,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,863,381 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $391,172,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Danaher by 4,248.8% during the 4th 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 lifted 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 valued at $1,460,215,000 after buying an additional 1,566,658 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on DHR. UBS Group cut their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $263.24.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR stock opened at $196.13 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $140.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average of $191.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $212.03.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 yield of 0.65%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were 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 directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Steven M. Rales sold 1,250,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.