Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Purchased by Knuff & Co LLC

Knuff & Co LLC raised its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,297 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the quarter. Knuff & Co LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,919,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Finally, BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the third quarter worth $44,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. Bank of America raised their price target on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $267.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 107,273 shares of company stock worth $26,813,819 over the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE DHR traded up $1.54 on Friday, reaching $248.38. 1,787,817 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,914,990. The company has a 50 day moving average of $248.48 and a 200 day moving average of $232.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $259.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.97 billion, a PE ratio of 42.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.36 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

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.