Atlas Brown Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Atlas Brown Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,463 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the quarter. Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $795,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter worth $39,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $50,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 45.1% during the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 222 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays cut their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $286.80.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded down $3.32 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $234.77. 2,135,630 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,710,872. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market cap of $169.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $235.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $253.88. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $222.53 and a twelve month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 20.61%.

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.