Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations Purchases New Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 23,972 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $5,503,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Howe & Rusling Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,519,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,020,865 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $234,340,000 after purchasing an additional 59,639 shares during the last quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $365,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 43,990 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $10,098,000 after buying an additional 2,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sava Infond d.o.o. bought a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $744,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $210.15 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $215.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $237.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.19 billion, a PE ratio of 39.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.24%.

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.