Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Buys 11,498 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 33.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,838 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,498 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $10,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $401,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 7,390 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 4.1% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wrapmanager Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.1% during the third quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,659 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $461,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on DHR. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 price target (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Six 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.76.

Danaher Stock Up 1.0 %

Danaher stock opened at $212.78 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.08 billion, a PE ratio of 40.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $196.80 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a 50 day moving average of $219.57 and a 200-day moving average of $240.07.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 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.