Baird Financial Group Inc. Buys 405,785 Shares of Danaher Corporation $DHR

Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) by 28.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,847,491 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 405,785 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned 0.26% of Danaher worth $364,953,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Red Tortoise LLC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 175.0% in the 2nd quarter. Red Tortoise LLC now owns 154 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Costello Asset Management INC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the first quarter worth $41,000. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at $40,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 81.4% during the 1st quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 254 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DHR. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 22nd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI lifted 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. Finally, Rothschild Redb downgraded Danaher from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.75.

Danaher Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $228.62 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $214.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $203.94. The company has a market cap of $161.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.14, a PEG ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.10. Danaher Corporation has a one year low of $171.00 and a one year high of $258.23.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 20th. The conglomerate reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $6 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Danaher Corporation will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 26th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 26.39%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 21,776 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 14,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,190,454.19. This represents a 59.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 5,174 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.42, for a total transaction of $1,088,713.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 2,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,352.50. This represents a 66.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 30,248 shares of company stock valued at $6,609,663 over the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.