Bank of Nova Scotia Reduces Stake in Danaher Corporation $DHR

Bank of Nova Scotia cut its holdings in shares of Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 459,945 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 34,470 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia owned 0.06% of Danaher worth $90,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Danaher by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,769,587 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $12,004,424,000 after purchasing an additional 788,499 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 19,592,211 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,016,404,000 after purchasing an additional 612,154 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,726,194 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,697,800,000 after purchasing an additional 81,670 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the second quarter valued at about $1,979,503,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP raised its stake in Danaher by 56.2% in the second quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP now owns 4,965,646 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $980,914,000 after buying an additional 1,787,522 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Rothschild Redb cut Danaher from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $241.00 price target on Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 22nd. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $245.75.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 21,776 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 12th. The stock was 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 directly owned 14,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,190,454.19. This trade represents a 59.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,298 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the director directly owned 20,762 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,702,593. This trade represents a 13.71% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days. Insiders own 11.20% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $226.20 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $216.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $204.48. Danaher Corporation has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $258.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.52. The company has a market cap of $159.78 billion, a PE ratio of 46.64, a P/E/G ratio of 4.39 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 26th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.39%.

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.