River Street Advisors LLC Has $587,000 Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

River Street Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,555 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the quarter. River Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $587,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,923,000. Czech National Bank boosted its position in Danaher by 4.2% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 130,939 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $36,404,000 after purchasing an additional 5,320 shares during the period. Central Valley Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $502,000. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,635 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $731,000 after buying an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 300,825 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $83,635,000 after buying an additional 7,683 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Guggenheim began coverage on Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction 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 approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $222.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $221.34 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $235.40 and a 200-day moving average of $253.08.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio 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.