Fiduciary Group LLC Buys 1,622 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Fiduciary Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,223 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,622 shares during the quarter. Fiduciary Group LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,101,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,779,000 after acquiring an additional 813 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 303,043 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $84,252,000 after purchasing an additional 1,499 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,750 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,379,000 after purchasing an additional 2,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,757,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of 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, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.76.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR stock opened at $209.90 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $150.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.75, a PEG 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 12-month low of $196.80 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $218.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $239.46.

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 period in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 10.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.