Apollon Wealth Management LLC Purchases 6,799 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 50.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 20,312 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,799 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fielder Capital Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its position in shares of Danaher by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 51,241 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $11,854,000 after acquiring an additional 545 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 1,649 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Danaher by 39.9% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 35,651 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $8,237,000 after acquiring an additional 10,176 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 40,844 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $9,449,000 after buying an additional 5,512 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on DHR. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $267.31.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction 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 approximately $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 107,273 shares of company stock valued at $26,813,819. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.98 on Monday, hitting $247.40. 1,593,955 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,755,556. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $232.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $183.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $259.00.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.31%.

Danaher Company 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.