Bellwether Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Bellwether Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 589 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $135,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of DHR. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Tudor Financial Inc. bought a new position in Danaher in the third quarter valued at $414,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 1.3% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,039 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,679,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 5.3% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,948 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,600,000 after acquiring an additional 648 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Danaher in the third quarter valued at $254,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $264.40.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $196.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $140.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.12, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $200.69 and its 200 day moving average is $223.46. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $171.00 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.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. Research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were paid a $0.32 dividend. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

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.