Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by PDS Planning Inc

PDS Planning Inc lessened its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,351 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 277 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc’s holdings in Danaher were worth $769,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 33.5% in the fourth quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 45,838 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $10,522,000 after purchasing an additional 11,498 shares in the last quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 7,269 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Terra Alpha Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $3,068,000. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 76,493 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $17,556,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.76.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $212.78 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $152.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.30, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $219.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $240.07. 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 twelve month low of $196.80 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share 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 business earned $2.09 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.60%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

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