Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC Has $391,000 Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC reduced its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,703 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 63 shares during the quarter. Oxford Financial Group LTD. LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after acquiring an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $391,172,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 6,862.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 929,868 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $213,452,000 after buying an additional 916,513 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,105,388 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $712,842,000 after buying an additional 749,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Danaher by 29,287.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 588,929 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $135,189,000 after acquiring an additional 586,925 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $211.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $151.26 billion, a PE ratio of 40.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $217.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $238.86. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.24%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 price objective (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.24.

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.