Flossbach Von Storch AG Buys 82,672 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Flossbach Von Storch AG lifted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,601,351 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 82,672 shares during the quarter. Danaher comprises approximately 4.9% of Flossbach Von Storch AG’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Flossbach Von Storch AG owned 0.62% of Danaher worth $1,064,477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 10.9% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 4,840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,420,000 after buying an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its stake in Danaher by 19.3% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,468 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Danaher by 76.8% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 495 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 31,530 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $9,248,000 after purchasing an additional 3,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 135.9% during the first quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 35,270 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $10,346,000 after buying an additional 20,320 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. Barclays raised their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.27.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last three months. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.95 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $239.39. 2,931,217 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,707,478. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $177.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $249.28 and its 200 day moving average is $229.86. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

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.