Community Financial Services Group LLC Raises Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Community Financial Services Group LLC lifted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,698 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 878 shares during the quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,063,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. David Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,930,000. Leavell Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,548 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,884,000 after acquiring an additional 1,597 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in Danaher by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Catawba River Capital grew its position in Danaher by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Catawba River Capital now owns 28,117 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,454,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Single Point Partners LLC acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $215,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim started coverage on Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Down 1.2 %

Danaher stock opened at $201.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83. 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 $199.75 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $231.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.14.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently 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.