OneAscent Financial Services LLC Acquires New Shares in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,095 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cynosure Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 449.5% in the fourth quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 9,512 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,183,000 after acquiring an additional 7,781 shares during the period. Bryce Point Capital LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $491,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Danaher by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,679,156 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $844,550,000 after purchasing an additional 96,174 shares in the last quarter. RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $1,143,000. Finally, Weitz Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 403,210 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $92,557,000 after buying an additional 52,300 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 price objective (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Down 8.3 %

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $181.42 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $181.20 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $129.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.36, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $209.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $234.26.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.24%.

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.