Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Bought by Renaissance Investment Group LLC

Renaissance Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 50,454 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Danaher makes up about 2.4% of Renaissance Investment Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Renaissance Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $11,582,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Clarius Group LLC raised its position in Danaher by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Clarius Group LLC now owns 4,913 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,128,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $232,000. Triangle Securities Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 62.4% in the 4th quarter. Triangle Securities Wealth Management now owns 3,746 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $860,000 after purchasing an additional 1,440 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,238 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont grew its position in Danaher by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 24,286 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,575,000 after buying an additional 3,146 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James cut their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Danaher in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $286.80.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $238.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $234.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $253.32. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $222.53 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The stock has a market cap of $172.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.50, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 20.61%.

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.