Salomon & Ludwin LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Salomon & Ludwin LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 27.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 284 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 106 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $65,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on DHR. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Wolfe Research raised Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group cut their price target on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

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 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Up 1.5 %

DHR opened at $206.66 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $196.80 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $229.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $249.51. The firm has a market cap of $149.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83. 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 (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly 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 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.45%.

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.