Essex Financial Services Inc. Decreases Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Essex Financial Services Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,054 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 116 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,390,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,923,000. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH raised its stake in Danaher by 52.5% in the 3rd quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 1,255 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 294.5% during the third quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 4,817 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,341,000 after purchasing an additional 3,596 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in Danaher by 3.2% during the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,231 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.5% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 2,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $808,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was 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 through this link. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on DHR. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim initiated coverage on Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.00.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $201.15 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $231.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $251.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.29 billion, a PE ratio of 38.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $199.75 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 period last year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.45%.

Danaher 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.