Bellwether Advisors LLC Takes Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Bellwether Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 589 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $135,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 63.3% in the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $264.40.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $196.01 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $140.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.12, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $200.69 and its 200 day moving average is $223.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.85%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is owned by 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.