Wealthspire Advisors LLC Sells 149 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC cut its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,541 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 149 shares during the quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,042,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.4% in the third quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 1,243 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. grew its position in Danaher by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $401,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. increased its stake in Danaher by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 7,390 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in Danaher by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,531 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $426,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on DHR. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $210.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $225.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.04. The stock has a market cap of $150.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.90, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Profile

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.