Cannell & Spears LLC Raises Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Cannell & Spears LLC boosted its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 63.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 383,294 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 148,809 shares during the period. Danaher makes up approximately 1.8% of Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Cannell & Spears LLC owned about 0.05% of Danaher worth $87,985,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 4.1% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 1,542 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $429,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Danaher by 27.7% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 24,903 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,924,000 after buying an additional 5,400 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its holdings in Danaher by 466.1% during the third quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 10,965 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,048,000 after buying an additional 9,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bellevue Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 25.8% during the 3rd quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 105,590 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $29,356,000 after acquiring an additional 21,670 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 target price (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.24.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher 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 directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 2.1 %

DHR stock opened at $205.69 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $147.01 billion, a PE ratio of 38.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $214.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $196.80 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. 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. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.24%.

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.