Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,764 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 97 shares during the quarter. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 3,462 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $801,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,902 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,988,000 after buying an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. HTLF Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $580,000. Lafayette Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 7,957 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,841,000 after buying an additional 425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 38.2% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,259 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,217,000 after buying an additional 1,453 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR traded down $0.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $235.51. The company had a trading volume of 2,336,771 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,723,040. The stock has a market cap of $174.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.80, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $182.09 and a 12 month high of $259.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $249.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $229.90.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. 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 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on DHR. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.27.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.