Danaher Corporation $DHR Shares Bought by Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co.

Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) by 8.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,291 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,746 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $9,144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the first quarter worth about $833,941,000. Generation Investment Management LLP increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 56.2% in the second quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 4,965,646 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $980,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,787,522 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Danaher by 44.5% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,708,578 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $965,259,000 after buying an additional 1,450,703 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in Danaher by 924.2% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 1,239,320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $244,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,118,318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 290.6% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,441,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $295,550,000 after buying an additional 1,072,617 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Danaher Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $228.41 on Friday. Danaher Corporation has a 12-month low of $171.00 and a 12-month high of $258.23. The company has a market cap of $161.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $211.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $202.99.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The conglomerate reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.17. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.92% and a net margin of 14.44%.The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Danaher Corporation will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 26th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 26th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $226.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Danaher from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $243.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 21,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.23, for a total value of $4,773,952.48. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 14,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,190,454.19. This represents a 59.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,298 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.50, for a total value of $746,997.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,702,593. This represents a 13.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 30,248 shares of company stock worth $6,609,663 over the last ninety days. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Danaher

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.