Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) was in 40 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of March. DHR investors should pay attention to an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late. There were 37 hedge funds in our database with DHR positions at the end of the previous quarter.
Just as important, positive insider trading activity is a second way to parse down the investments you’re interested in. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of stimuli for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this method if you understand where to look (learn more here).
Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the key action encompassing Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR).
How are hedge funds trading Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)?
At the end of the first quarter, a total of 40 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 8% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings substantially.
According to our comprehensive database, Viking Global, managed by Andreas Halvorsen, holds the most valuable position in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR). Viking Global has a $816.4 million position in the stock, comprising 4.9% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is David Blood and Al Gore of Generation Investment Management, with a $377.7 million position; the fund has 7.7% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Levin Capital Strategies, managed by John A. Levin, assembled the most outsized position in Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR). Levin Capital Strategies had 62.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management also made a $10.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new DHR investors: Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, Matthew Knauer and Mina Faltas’s Nokota Management, and Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management.
What do corporate executives and insiders think about Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR)?
Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is at its handiest when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time period, Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 9 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR). These stocks are Siemens AG (ADR) (NYSE:SI), Cummins Inc. (NYSE:CMI), Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG), and Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON). This group of stocks are the members of the 0 industry and their market caps are closest to DHR’s market cap.
