West Branch Capital LLC Sells 661 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

West Branch Capital LLC lessened its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 58.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 472 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 661 shares during the period. West Branch Capital LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $108,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,194,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth about $217,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in Danaher by 1,212.8% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after buying an additional 2,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $235,583,000 after buying an additional 11,216 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of DHR stock opened at $244.18 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $225.42 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The business’s fifty day moving average is $234.75 and its 200 day moving average is $253.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $176.36 billion, a PE ratio of 46.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.02 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on DHR. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target for the company. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.55.

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.