Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. decreased its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,278 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 128 shares during the period. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on DHR. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $267.31.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total value of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 103,984 shares of company stock valued at $25,997,094. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $247.40 on Tuesday. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $182.09 and a 12 month high of $259.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $183.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.93, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $248.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $232.89.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

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.