Chicago Capital LLC Grows Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Chicago Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,046 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the quarter. Chicago Capital LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,388,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at $39,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on DHR. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $214.09 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $154.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.55, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $214.03 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $235.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $253.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

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.