Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Natixis Advisors LLC

Natixis Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 747,076 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 55,353 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $171,491,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after purchasing an additional 441,012 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after acquiring an additional 148,251 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,051,097,000 after acquiring an additional 26,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,066,755 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $933,524,000 after purchasing an additional 135,047 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.76.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $211.09 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $220.07 and a 200-day moving average of $240.82. The company has a market cap of $150.87 billion, a PE ratio of 39.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.32 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Company 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.