Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 22.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 101,200 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,833 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $23,412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 96,490.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,287,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,180,839,000 after purchasing an additional 23,262,904 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $2,057,164,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Danaher by 18.6% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,185,203,000 after acquiring an additional 3,905,449 shares in the last quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 1,440.7% during the 3rd quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 1,100,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $273,009,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,976 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $178,850,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last quarter. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DHR. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Raymond James lifted their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.27.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock traded down $0.95 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $239.39. 2,931,217 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,707,478. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $259.00. The company has a market cap of $177.28 billion, a PE ratio of 37.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $249.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.87 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.90%.

About Danaher

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.