Lafayette Investments Inc. Raises Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Lafayette Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,957 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,841,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $683,000. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its stake in Danaher by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 26,611 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,156,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 296,996 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $68,707,000 after purchasing an additional 96,395 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Danaher by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,080 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $764,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH boosted its stake in Danaher by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 553,155 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $137,238,000 after purchasing an additional 2,567 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on DHR shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.27.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR traded down $1.00 during trading on Friday, reaching $235.36. 507,370 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,697,690. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $259.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $249.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $229.90. The company has a market cap of $174.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.99, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company’s revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.87 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.90%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,548,498.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.