Summit Financial LLC Sells 98 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Summit Financial LLC reduced its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,278 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 98 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its position in Danaher by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 7,390 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its position in Danaher by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Trust raised its holdings in Danaher by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 4,304 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $988,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. 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 report on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $200.09 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $143.01 billion, a PE ratio of 37.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $196.80 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $213.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $235.39.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.