Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Stake Raised by Capital Investment Services of America Inc.

Capital Investment Services of America Inc. lifted its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 132,522 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the quarter. Danaher accounts for approximately 2.9% of Capital Investment Services of America Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Capital Investment Services of America Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $30,420,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Danaher by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $996,141,000 after acquiring an additional 535,254 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 40,196.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $119,539,000 after acquiring an additional 428,897 shares in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 30.4% in the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,705,884 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $465,617,000 after purchasing an additional 397,671 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $74,551,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on DHR. KeyCorp raised their price target on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim assumed coverage on Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $211.92 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $153.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $210.04 and a one year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $234.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $252.68.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 10.90% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.