Scotia Capital Inc. Purchases 47,447 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Scotia Capital Inc. increased its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 373,940 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,447 shares during the quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. owned about 0.05% of Danaher worth $85,840,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 4.1% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 6.7% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,318 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,512,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 1.0% in the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 17,946 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $4,989,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 19.3% in the third quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,563 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the third quarter worth $314,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Danaher Trading Up 10.0 %

Danaher stock opened at $192.18 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $204.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $231.11. 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 12 month low of $171.00 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The stock has a market cap of $137.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a positive change 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 yield of 0.67%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company 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.